


fragile beauty

by kuroeko



Category: Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven GO
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Chronic Illness, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, they're all GO adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27403213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroeko/pseuds/kuroeko
Summary: The human body is simultaneously extremely resilient and extremely fragile.
Relationships: Afuro Terumi | Aphrodi/Fubuki Shirou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. nerve

**Author's Note:**

> A fic written thinking about mistakes and regrets in the past and how they affect ones current life and future. 
> 
> A bit of a toneshift, but this fic is quite personal to me. I used to be quite healthy, but unfortunately later on in life developed chronic illness and pain. Through all that, though, life goes on and one finds a way to adapt. I still have a full time life outside of all of this, that unfortunately often takes up all my time. I wrote this when I was going through a bad pain flareup, but each day I hope to get better. Sometimes I think: If I was healthy, what would things be like? But there's no use daydreaming....  
> \---  
> Thank you [Enkidudu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enkidudu) for beta!

[The human body is simultaneously extremely resilient and extremely fragile. - Unknown]

Fubuki tucked away his phone after reading the unwanted inspirational message of the day that popped up whenever he checked the time. He really needed to change the phone theme sometime, but he only ever remembered when he was in a rush. The message blocking half the screen was especially useless to the point of being irritating. Stopping within the thrumming flow of the busy crowd swirling around him, he sighed and glanced up at the nearby colorful shop signs lining the street. Since he had already missed the bullet train home he'd just get something to eat before he keeled over from both disappointment and hunger. A simple yellow triangular sign caught his eye, and he headed towards the sandwich shop that boasted a row of seats against the floor length windows. The prices looked cheap enough from the menu outside, and he was at the point of hunger that anything looked good to him. 

Taking a slip from the box near the counter, then checking off what he wanted to order, he turned it back in then paid and sat down at a window seat so he could get a good view of the crowd passing through. He zoned out while waiting for his order to arrive, mind skipping over to recent events that he hadn’t had much time to mull over in the following scramble. 

Fifth Sector was currently undoing all the damage that had happened before Coach Hibiki took over, a process that would take several years. It had already been a year since then and most of the previous team members of Inazuma Japan had all gone back to their day jobs, himself included. Living in Hokkaido briefly to train the current students at Hakuren was a nice stay in his hometown, but he was confident the team could do well without him now. This left him free to hermit back to his actual home. It didn’t mean that all of them were free from Fifth Sector, though. Dismantling all that had happened wasn’t a one person job and he was on hand to assist, leading to why he had just spent far too long in a meeting with Hiroto and had now missed his train. 

“Just because I work as an auditor doesn’t mean I have tons of free time,” he grumbled to himself as his order arrived. Absentmindedly unwrapping the sandwich, the discontent working adult began to gnaw through the layers of ingredients while people-watching through the glass at the same time. 

Golden hair flashed by as a group of trendy girls walked through while chatting with each other, catching his eye and reminding him of a certain someone. Aphrodi...he wondered how that enigmatic playboy was doing. Both of them had been attracted to each other during their time fighting against Aliea. They had even tried dating briefly but neither of them had been emotionally ready during that time. He had still been wrestling with Atsuya’s death and the lingering thoughts that came with it, while Aphrodi had left back to his hometown while still dealing with trauma from Kageyama. The distance between the two combined with overall emotional turmoil caused them to mutually break up on neutral terms with one another. Fubuki had been through enough therapy now to be mostly at peace with himself, and he wondered if things would be different if they tried again nowadays...a wisp of a thought that trailed through his mind. 

Shaking his head, he went back to focusing on his sandwich. Aphrodi hadn’t really contacted him since, anyways. The most news he had heard about him in the past few years had been when Aphrodi had made his appearance as Kidokawa Seishuu’s coach. The shock that had gripped him upon seeing that familiar figure on the TV screen still lingered. Aphrodi had looked so familiar yet different at the same time. His wine-red eyes still had that strength from before, yet seemed more world-weary with a different focus in life. His hair, too, _that_ had been a shock. The hair that he remembered would take ages to care for, but was so soft and seemed to glow when he had run it through his hands when they spent time with each other. Now it seemed duller, in a loose side ponytail and with a dip dye, a look that he was quite sure Aphrodi wouldn’t be caught dead in ten years ago. 

Fubuki looked up through the window again upon hearing some commotion from outside the shop. The girls from before had come back, giggling and squealing with each other while sliding through photos on their phones. Leaning forward to try and see around the side of the sandwich shop for the source of all this noise, his breath caught when he glimpsed a familiar face with an arrogant but gentle smile and crimson red eyes. Aphrodi was casually striding past while wearing the world’s ugliest black down jacket. Fubuki’s fashion sense was nonexistent, but even he knew that something wasn’t quite right here as he squinted to try and make out the reason for all of this. The Aphrodi he knew would cry before being seen in such an outfit. Unsure of what to do, he hurriedly nibbled at his sandwich and gazed out through the glass.

_Should I say hi? Greet him? What was Aphrodi even doing in this side road?_

The latter question was quickly answered as he realized the crowd of people following Aphrodi weren’t fans, but were in fact a whole photography crew. One lady wearing a mask with the characteristic aura of a manager fussed around Aphrodi. The model let down his hair, causing Fubuki to nearly choke on his sandwich. As he spoke with the manager, Aphrodi unzipped the down jacket and shed it, revealing the outfit underneath. A summertime outfit, despite it only being the start of spring, exposing far too much skin for the chilly weather still outside. _So that’s why he was wearing that heavy jacket,_ Fubuki thought with a start as he scrambled to tear his eyes away from the bare skin. Aphrodi had grown just like him in all these years, but this outfit was extremely flattering on him. A white woven cotton crop top that laced up around his neck with a long ribbon trailing in the back that rested lightly on his hips. Fubuki’s teal eyes blinked as he took in the high-waisted black shorts with a double row of gold buttons in the front. Aphrodi laughed as he clipped on some jewelry, then ducked as his manager pulled a wide brim straw hat with a black ribbon onto his head. A laugh that Fubuki could still hear ringing in his head despite all the noise being blocked out by the glass. 

Half-eaten sandwich already forgotten on the side, Fubuki could only watch with mesmerized eyes as Aphrodi posed with some flowers in front of the quaint cafe across the street. Whatever clothes he was wearing for any gender would definitely fly off the shelves with these photos. Moving quickly and professionally, the shoot was over almost as soon as it started, and Aphrodi was quickly wrapped back up in the down jacket and thrust into some comfy boots.

_It was nice to see him again_ , Fubuki thought as his eyes followed Aphrodi who was indulging some fans that had tagged along. _It seems like he’s doing well._ Looking back down to pick up the sandwich, he began to eat again then glanced up to see a pair of red eyes looking straight at him in shock through the glass. 

Casting everything aside, Aphrodi seemed to fly towards the door, violently pushing it open and hurrying to stand near Fubuki. 

“Fubuki, is it you?!” The suave model mask had slipped to reveal a wide eyed curiosity that was more like the Aphrodi he knew. 

“Ah...yes.” Fubuki was desperately glad that Aphrodi was clad in a jacket that covered everything he was wearing earlier, otherwise he’d have no idea where to properly look right now. 

“I haven’t seen you in so long!” Some curious patrons in the shop were staring over, some even taking photos, making Fubuki slightly uncomfortable. “I thought you were in Hokkaido, with Hakuren, are you here just to visit?” 

“Ah that was temporary, I actually live in a different city and was called over just to help out…” Fubuki wasn’t sure why he was suddenly telling Aphrodi all of this, they barely knew each other now. 

“Oh, do you live here? I live around here,” Aphrodi hastily tacked on at the end. He seemed almost desperate for a split second, but his eyes crinkled as he smiled warmly at Fubuki, causing turmoil to appear in his icy heart.

“No, no, I missed my bullet train home so I came to get something to eat before I caught the next one,” Fubuki tried to clear up the situation while trying to keep an iron grip on his rapidly warming heart. He didn’t need this all over again, his feelings earlier had just been a fleeting fantasy.

“Oh, I see, well-” The two of them were suddenly cut off by a polite cough on the side. His manager was standing next to him looking extremely awkward.

“Aphrodi, I’m sorry to interrupt your...reunion, but we’re starting to run behind on the shoot schedule.” She glanced at the crew waiting outside of the shop, a few of them had started milling around checking out nearby areas for potential street shots.

“Ah the shoot! I’m sorry, I got so caught up in seeing my old friend-”

 _Friend_ , Fubuki nearly winced at being referred to that way. Just a friend.

“-that I completely forgot we’re on a tight schedule. Fubuki, I’m sorry, but next time you come through the city come find me alright? We have so much to catch up on.” Aphrodi reached forward and gripped his wrist eagerly, the sudden warmth surprising him and causing him to pull back a bit. 

“Ah alright, but I don’t have your contact information…” ever since they had gradually drifted apart, he hadn’t bothered to keep tabs on Aphrodi. It would have hurt him too much if the vain boy had gotten a few more partners through the years….

Those red eyes flickered for a moment, then softened as he looked upon his first love. 

“I never changed my number, you know, it’s still the same.” 

“What!” Fubuki had changed his number...once, twice, a few times now. Every time he felt like running away from his past self. He had had his current one for the last three years now, a record that Kazemaru often wryly commented on as he would dial the wrong number at times. 

“If you still have it, just send me a text or give me a call.” Aphrodi let go of his wrist and pulled back, quickly sticking it into his pocket. It had been just a bit cold. Fubuki realized that Aphrodi’s grip was lacking the burning warmth from the past.

“I don’t have your number now, either way.” Was that bitterness he heard? Aphrodi’s face didn’t betray his emotions when he spoke as he tilted his head and smiled again. 

“I’m sorry, I have to go now,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, then winked at Fubuki as he leaned in. “But I do look forward to seeing you again.” Turning around, he waltzed out the door that was being held open by his manager, then went to apologize to the crew that he had held up. Right before he left the view of the window, the flamboyant man whose energy couldn’t be dampened by a trash bag of a down jacket waved back at Fubuki through the glass before being rushed off by his crew. 

\---

Aphrodi felt like kicking himself. Why had he acted so cool and not shoved his number into Fubuki’s hands?! What if Fubuki didn’t have his number anymore? This chance would’ve slipped away all because of his pride. He was so desperate...but also knew that Fubuki would definitely run away if he came on too strong. Moping sadly in the back of the van that was transporting them to each shoot location, he was brought back to reality by a water bottle poking his arm. 

“Drink up, we still have a few more locations to go to. How are you feeling?” His manager handed him the water bottle that already had the cap partially twisted off. He smiled gratefully, then fully opened it and took a sip. 

“Emotionally horrible, physically alright.” He responded wryly. He’d probably regret this in a few days but that was fine. He had managed to catch Fubuki before the boy could disappear, if only for a brief moment, and that was cause for celebration. 

“I’m not going to comment on the first part, but you moving so quickly surprised all of us,” his manager responded with a smile in her voice. It wasn’t like he could see her face under the mask anyways, or through his tears. “Hopefully you won’t regret it in a few days but your shoot schedule is loose so just let me know.” 

“Thanks,” he responded gratefully. Rolling the water bottle in his hand, he wondered if Fubuki still had his number after all these years. He had been too afraid to reach out, afraid to scare away that fragile child. But they weren’t children anymore, and maybe he could stand to be a little more bold. Resolving to ferret out Fubuki’s information if he wasn’t contacted directly in the next few days, he sighed dramatically, then leaned back into his seat ignoring the protest of his shoulder at the sudden change in weight. 

\---

Unsure of how to react, Fubuki did the next logical thing and auto-piloted into finishing his meal and hurrying to make the next train. Only after he had purchased his ticket and sat down in the waiting area did the reality of what had just happened sink into him. Aphrodi had been right there, someone he hadn’t bumped into in ten years, just casually strolling by due to a chance of fate. Even more so, he had still remembered Fubuki and came to find him in the restaurant. Just like that, forgetting everything else at the moment to focus uncomfortably on him. Furrowing his brows, Fubuki tried to remember where he might still have Aphrodi’s number stored. Maybe in one of his old SIM cards, but everything was usually stored in the same online account nowadays…. Fishing out his phone he dug deep into the contacts app that he normally never touched and scrolled through, curious if he still had it imported after all these years. 

[Aphrodi] 

He paused upon finding the unique name in a sea of different names and numbers. 

_Ha, not even his first name,_ Fubuki gave a small smile then tapped the message icon next to it, then he hesitated. _What should I say? What level of formality?_ His fingers hovered over the keyboard as he typed and re-typed the greeting message. He was agonizing for far too long over such a simple text and was staring at one such iteration when the train arrival announcement suddenly came over the loudspeaker. Startled, his fingers involuntarily gripped his phone and accidentally pressed the send button. 

_OH NO_ , Fubuki panicked, unsure if he could even unsend a text message. Evidently not, because almost immediately a reply came back. 

* * *

Fubuki: It was good to see you today, I am not in the city often but if our schedules align next time we can possibly schedule a meal. 

Aphrodi: HI !!!

Aphrodi: FUBUKI?

Aphrodi: OK LMK IM P FREE

Aphrodi: ( ˘ ³˘)❤

* * *

Fubuki stared at the last line of text in disbelief. Weren’t they just FRIENDS?! Maybe Aphrodi was just like that with everyone, he had always been far more friendly than Fubuki. Brushing off the suspicious feelings, Fubuki quickly replied, then settled back in to watch the scenery speed past as he headed home. For once, he didn’t feel so annoyed that he had to come back in a few weeks again. In fact, he almost felt like he was looking forward to it. 

* * *

Fubuki: Yes it’s me, sorry I changed my number. I’ll be back in two weeks, I’ll let you know my schedule when I get it.

Aphrodi: OK! SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS!

Aphrodi: o(^∀^*)o

* * *


	2. tendon

Shaking off his black umbrella before stepping through the doors of the family restaurant, he wondered if Aphrodi had been serious upon picking this place to meet at. It just didn’t seem to fit the image he had of Aphrodi, having personally expected some sort of fine dining establishment. Not somewhere like this where he could clearly see the rioting children in the distant background beyond the entryway. Fubuki walked in through the automatic sliding door to see Aphrodi already sitting in the waiting area, calmly reading a small book. He was wearing the most obnoxious pink flamingo shirt Fubuki had ever seen, complete with a thick black knitted cardigan and long black pants that ended at some pink fluffy loafers. He also looked extremely dry, despite there being a matching obnoxious flamingo umbrella shoved into the nearby umbrella stand. It seemed like he had been waiting for a while. Upon hearing the door, Aphrodi glanced up, then brightened as he saw who it was. 

“Fubuki! You came!” Aphrodi carefully tucked what looked like a crumpled receipt into the book to mark the page he was at, then got up to join Fubuki. 

“Yes but, aren’t we both a bit early?” Fubuki replied with surprise. Aphrodi used to often come late in the past, but maybe he had changed. 

“I never really know what can happen so I like to leave a lot of leeway time now, I just happened to get here early today,” Aphrodi replied with an enigmatic smile. 

“Oh.” _Maybe he lives far away?_ Fubuki wondered about this, but at least flamingo boy had evidently developed some planning abilities. He realized he was closer to the door and Aphrodi seemed to be waiting for him expectantly. Pushing through the heavier inner door, Aphrodi slipped through after him and cut past Fubuki to go speak to the receptionist on where to sit. 

Seated in a booth far away from the rowdier children, Fubuki found himself involuntarily staring at Aphrodi as they waited for their food to arrive. Both of them had quickly ordered, each having their own preferred dish at family restaurants. It comforted him to know that Aphrodi’s taste hadn’t changed - he still ordered the same thing no matter what family restaurant they went to. Aphrodi glanced up then smiled, corners of his eyes crinkling when he caught Fubuki’s startled response and subsequent averted gaze. 

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” That gentle voice broke through the silence that had settled around them. Fubuki glanced up to see Aphrodi still looking at him, waiting for a response. 

“Yes…” Fubuki trailed off for a bit, then decided to at least attempt to carry on a conversation. He had spent the last two weeks mulling over how it would go, almost cancelling a couple of times but always stopping himself when he remembered the warmth in Aphrodi’s grip. 

“...I didn’t know you modeled,” he weakly finished the sentence. There were a million things he had thought about saying when he had rehearsed this in the shower, and he had somehow picked the worst one. 

“Only sometimes,” Aphrodi responded. That enigmatic smile again, not fully showing what emotions were hidden below. It probably could’ve fooled most people, but Fubuki knew him from long ago and that something was off but he couldn’t quite put a finger on it. 

“Most of my time is spent on my actual job - I work in translation nowadays, from home.” 

“Translation?! Not soccer? I thought...well you coached for Kidokawa Seishou right?” Fubuki was confused by this development. Despite not following what Aphrodi had been doing with his life, this was truly unexpected. 

“Kidokawa was a favor for Gouenji, since he needed help with getting the team to work together. Besides, it’s not easy to get a full career in soccer,” Aphrodi responded as he leaned back against the booth. “And either way, I’m fluent enough between the languages I work with so it was an easy choice in university.” 

“I guess you’re right,” Fubuki warily responded. Aphrodi, one of the most powerful players he had played with in the past, would definitely have been able to easily get a career in soccer. He wasn’t one to speak though, as he also didn’t play pro soccer anymore, but not after at least being in the pro league for a few years. 

“It at least means I have a pretty loose schedule.” Making it easy for him to rearrange everything to make time for Fubuki, and carefully picking locations so he had enough time to arrive without worry. 

“Yeah I understand that, I travel around for work but it’s based on how I set my schedule. I’m mostly an external auditor.” Fubuki replied, hoping fervently that the food would arrive soon. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out in a direct conversation like this without something to distract himself with. 

Right on cue, the server arrived with two large plates for each of them. Napolitan spaghetti for Aphrodi, and hamburg steak for Fubuki. The serving size was so large, Fubuki was feeling doubtful as to how either of them would finish their meals. 

“This place lets you take home leftovers.” 

Fubuki looked up in surprise to see Aphrodi watching him with amusement. Unusual as that was for a restaurant here, Fubuki was grateful for the opportunity and felt more relieved that he didn’t have to stuff himself silly then roll onto the train. Carefully slicing up the hamburger, he realized that Aphrodi hadn’t made a move on his meal and was quietly watching him.

“Is something wrong?” Fubuki asked, worried that he might have accidentally destroyed some sort of unspoken family restaurant rule.

“Ah no, sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. You still eat things the same way, huh. You always used to cut out your portions first before starting to eat.” Aphrodi picked up his fork on the side and inelegantly stabbed up some loops of spaghetti. Embarrassed at being called out like this, Fubuki decided the best course of action was to make his own observation. 

“Well there’s no harm in it! What happened to you always liking to loop up a bunch of spaghetti around your fork?” Aphrodi paused for a moment, briefly stiffening before leaning to one side with an easy smile. 

“Sometimes I like to change things up,” he teased as he continued to stab at his spaghetti. “So an external auditor, huh? Is that why you show up in the city every once in a while?” 

“Yeah, I come here to help Hiroto work out the finances of the remnants of Fifth Sector every few weeks. He pays for it all so it’s not like I really mind.” Sometimes he’d expense a particularly expensive meal if he felt like sticking it to the man. “You’d be surprised at what sort of dumb stuff they spent their money on, and so many lost receipts and invoices I don’t understand…” Fubuki began to unknowingly complain about how annoying this job was in general. It was not unlike his other jobs, but this one involved significantly more weird contractor invoices for all the different soccer stadium modifications that had been performed. Aphrodi listened patiently, happy to just have Fubuki across the table from him. Something he had daydreamed about for years but had never thought would come true. 

Fubuki was down to half the hamburg steak when he realized that he had been the only one talking the whole time. Aphrodi had just been making noises of general agreement and encouraging him to keep going. Flustered by how passionate his complaints had been earlier, he decided to change tack and ask about Aphrodi instead. 

“Sorry it turned into just me complaining about work.” He finished, chagrined. 

“No, no, it’s fine. I was part of Fifth Sector for a brief period so I understand the bullshit that goes in hand with it.” A spaghetti’d fork was waved at him from across the table. Laughing a bit at hearing such a beauty say ‘bullshit’ so casually, Fubuki relaxed a bit more and thought about what he had wanted to ask about before this meeting. So many things had been on his mind, and yet one of them had struck him as particularly unusual. 

“Aphrodi….about your hair, what made you change it?” He had missed seeing the glow of his golden hair under the sun, or running the long strands through his fingers when they had stayed up late talking in the past. Brief moments that had been full of happiness.

Aphrodi was silent in the booth across from him, picking quietly at his food. 

“Just a small change, it was getting too hard to maintain so I cut my hair a bit.” His fork dragged through the spaghetti, scraping against the bottom of the plate leaving a trail of red sauce. 

“And the dye?” Fubuki prompted. 

“Losing a bet with Gouenji,” Aphrodi responded wryly. “He made me dye my hair to match his awful Ishido Shuuji image. Maybe he thought I’d show up more at meetings or something and make him look ugly in comparison with the same hairstyle.” Fubuki had to suppress a laugh at that mental image, the two couldn’t be any more different from one another in style. 

Aphrodi shifted in his seat again, motioning for a waiter who was walking by. 

“Could I get two boxes please?” he called out to the waiter. Settling back into his seat, he looked over apologetically at Fubuki. 

“Sorry I got you a box too, you can’t possibly finish all that.” Fubuki was inclined to agree, seeing as if he tried to eat any more, his stomach might mutiny and stab him from the inside. They chatted about superficial things as they waited. How their mutual friends were doing, recent sports events, and the differences between the kids they had coached. 

“Coaching reminded me a lot of our old days,” Fubuki mused about the different ways he had tried to make the team at Hakuren work together. “Our coaches really had it tough, huh.”

“They handled so much more than we realized,” Aphrodi responded in agreement. “I should probably send some of them a thank you card nowadays, something like: [Thanks for putting up with kid me, who was sort of an idiot.]” Fubuki laughed at that last statement; it was true in some ways, they had all just been kids back then. Now that he was older he couldn’t believe how different he had become in a good way, more at peace with himself. 

The to-go boxes arrived, and to his surprise the waiter took care of the boxing for them. Aphrodi seemed to be expecting it, having not touched his plate ever since asking for the boxes. 

“You have to go soon to catch your train, right?” Aphrodi asked as he walked along with Fubuki into the entryway of the restaurant. He picked up his flamingo umbrella from the stand and then realized that Fubuki’s plain umbrella was gone. 

“Oh...maybe someone took it thinking it was theirs,” Fubuki halfheartedly observed the rest of the umbrellas that were all more uniquely patterned than his. It was still drizzling outside, and he had a bit of a walk until the train station. 

“Here, take mine,” Aphrodi shoved his umbrella into the crook of Fubuki’s arm. “I live closeby anyway, I’ll just run home.” 

“But your outfit!” Fubuki protested. Even without knowing much about fashion, he could tell it was expensive and rain probably wouldn’t be good for it. 

“I’ll be fine, these clothes still have to get washed in water,” Aphrodi reassured him, “Now hurry up, or else you’ll be late!”

“Aphrodi! At least let me walk you home!” 

“It’s in a different direction, my chivalrous ice prince, and I’m going to leave right now.” Saying as such, Aphrodi stepped out the sliding door then walked off down the street, ducking under some of the walkways to attempt to avoid the steady drizzle. 

“Wait, Aphrodi!” Fubuki shouted as he dashed out into the rain, “but your umbrella!”

“Just return it to me next time!” the frustrating model yelled back down the street as he rapidly walked off, “And actually USE it when standing in the rain!” Aphrodi disappeared around the corner, truly going in the opposite direction of the train station. Helpless, Fubuki stood in the rain for a moment more, then opened the pink umbrella that clashed quite spectacularly with his office attire and made his way to the station with quite a bit of time to spare. 

\---

Shedding his damp - no, honestly, more like soaking wet clothes - Aphrodi lurched through his living room and beelined towards the bathtub. Shivering a bit while adjusting the bath settings, he used a single sandaled foot to kick open the tap, then glanced at himself in the mirror while pulling his hair back up into a loose ponytail. He’d deal with the clothes later, right now his priority was getting his sorry ass into the warm bath to try and chase away any chills or aches that might set in if he stayed cold for any longer. Looking at his reflection he tried to spot if there was anything different about him from an external point of view. He’d hoped to look normal today to Fubuki, like nothing had changed in those ten years. Fubuki had always been quietly perceptive. Even Aphrodi had been surprised that he had remembered how he used to eat spaghetti. Yet when it came to invisible things like this, maybe that snow prince wouldn’t know. Wouldn’t necessarily need to know. 

Carefully gripping the side of the tub then sinking in, he poured in some salts and sank back against the folded wet towel that buffered his bare back against the ceramic tub. Everything hurt right now, even his heart, but that wasn’t really an effect of his condition, just of his stupidity. A pang in his ankle caused him to shake it a bit, those designer loafers were damn nice but also damn bad on the ankles. Rubbing his ankle absentmindedly to work some warmth back into them quickly in the steaming bath, he shifted slightly to better lean against the side that hurt less today. 

Aphrodi was afraid to disappoint Fubuki, afraid that Fubuki would leave him. Maybe look at him with eyes of pity, or treat him differently if he knew the truth. Closing his eyes as he leaned against the tub, he tried to relax, dwelling on the fact that he had gotten to see Fubuki again. Leaving his umbrella with the oblivious prince had been a stroke of genius in the moment. He smiled, knowing that Fubuki’s sense of duty would make sure he’d get to see him at least one more time in order to return the umbrella.


	3. muscle

“You got back in touch with Aphrodi?!” 

Fubuki looked up from where he had been wiping his face with a towel to see Kazemaru’s surprised face. The two of them had gone on a morning run together, something they tried to do at least once a week despite both of their busy schedules. Resting on the grass next to the riverside, they both soaked in the morning sun while catching up with one another’s lives. 

“Yeah, he seemed to be doing well,” Fubuki replied as he remembered what had happened last week. The two had texted intermittently since then, but the reply times lagged quite a bit causing the relationship to feel more like pen-pals than texting buddies. 

“Oh, that’s good.” Kazemaru had figured the two of them were a lost cause after not speaking for ten years. It was good to know he could be wrong sometimes. 

“Do you still keep in touch with him?” Fubuki asked Kazemaru as he gazed up at the clouds moving slowly overhead. A chilly morning breeze swept through, reminding him of how cold that day had been at the restaurant. He hoped Aphrodi had quickly gotten home and dried off, he hadn’t even been able to check how far his house was. 

“I follow his Twitter,” Kazemaru answered, “but he doesn’t tweet much, just like about food and clothes. Sometimes he complains about his translation work, it’s sort of amusing to watch him complain.”

“That’s….not what I saw on his Twitter,” Fubuki responded in confusion. He hadn’t spent way too much time stalking Aphrodi’s social media to miss this. Including maybe a little too much time staring at his modeling photos. 

“Which Twitter were you looking at?” Kazemaru asked as he took out his phone. Tapping into the app, he swiped through and quickly typed an @ into the search bar.

“This one?” As Kazemaru held up the screen, Fubuki leaned across and saw the familiar handle: [@aphrodite_rumi]. 

“Yeah this one.” The handle had given him a chuckle when he had come across it on Aphrodi’s modeling page profile. It was mostly filled with tweets about modeling shoots and brands with photos to accompany it, not too many personal posts in between them. 

“That’s his professional one, his modeling manager actually handles it for him. Same with his Instagram I think.” Kazemaru clarified to a very confused Fubuki. “This is his actual Twitter.” Poking around a bit more on his phone, he brought up a very different profile under a different handle: [@godfkinknows]. A picture of a screaming white bird with a MSPaint halo drawn on top of it was the profile photo. (Kazemaru clarified that it was a white bellbird, and apparently the loudest bird in existence which coincided with how Aphrodi tended to tweet.)

Kazemaru scrolled through some of the tweets as Fubuki looked on with morbid curiosity. Food pics flashed by, along with clothing and outfit photos that looked like they were taken in a hallway with a long mounted mirror. There seemed to be quite a few text posts that were - true to Kazemaru’s word - complaints about translation difficulties and some vague ones about being tired. There was a surprising lack of selfies. 

“Ah.” Fubuki saw the small lock next to the handle. “No wonder I couldn’t find it, it’s his private.”

“You can just request to follow. Since he knows you he’ll let you in.” Kazemaru put his phone down then stretched and laid down in the grass. “He’d probably be happy to, if you’re wondering about that.”

“I can’t just request to follow his private after not talking to him for ten years!” Fubuki responded, exasperated. It was awkward enough that he had liked a year-old photo by accident while scrolling through Aphrodi’s professional feed. His phone skills were enough to make him want to throw the phone out the window at times. 

_I think you’re overthinking it,_ Kazemaru silently thought as he elected to not respond. For Fubuki to have looked through someone else’s social media...that was also something unusual. His quiet companion normally declined to take a deep interest in others, mostly only maintaining superficial relationships. The two of them were comfortable with one another from their time in Inazuma Japan all the way to the pro leagues. They’d been through too much together to put on airs with one another. Even though Fubuki had never mentioned it, Kazemaru was positive Aphrodi and Fubuki had some dating history which made this reunion all the more interesting. Interesting in the sense that he wanted to stay out of any potential drama. 

Turning his head to look over at the problem person in question, he caught Fubuki furrowing his brows while looking at the river flowing past. 

“It’s really not that big of a deal, and anyways aren’t you two still on good terms?” He tried to reassure the worried friend next to him.

“No, it’s too awkward…” Fubuki sighed and got up, brushing some stray grass off of him. His butt was damp now, but it was worth having these moments with Kazemaru that helped ground him into the present. “And either way, I don’t know, Aphrodi seemed a little off. I’m not sure why but he seemed a bit distant.”

“Well, he hasn’t seen you in a while right? I’m sure he was just trying to be polite,” Kazemaru tried to make Fubuki think positively of the dramatic bellbird as he also stood up to finish the rest of their run. 

“I suppose…” came the doubtful reply which was interrupted by a light towel smack from a speedy runner who was already capering off into the distance. 

“Stop moping and catch up!” Kazemaru called back, jogging backwards and then almost tripping on an exposed rock on the dirt path. 

“He’s only ever this rude when I can’t quickly catch up and deal with him,” Fubuki grumbled to himself with a smile as he tossed his own towel around his neck and chased after the incarnation of a wind spirit, complete with long blue hair. 

\---

Aphrodi was lying facedown in bed, ignoring the general feelings of pain and thinking over all the chores he had to do in the next few days. Laundry, grocery shopping, dishes, cooking…it was all too much to deal with right now during a flare up. Work, too, he had to finish that, and was there a photoshoot coming up? Time flew when he was only looking forward to the next day and the day after that. Hoping each day that he might feel better than the day before. Slowly rolling to his side, then pushing himself up out of bed with his arms, a searching foot found his slippers and he limped out of bed to sit down on the floor.

_Too much effort to just get out of bed to lie down in an even less appealing location_ , came an annoyed thought. Rolling his shoulders slowly, he sucked in a deep breath, then carefully got up and continued limping out the bedroom door. Would’ve been nice if his right knee cooperated today but that wouldn’t stop him from eating breakfast. Gnawing on some cold toast, he pulled over a paper calendar that spent the majority of the year sadly lying on the dining table. 

_Oh I forgot, Kidou’s coming today._ He tapped his finger on the current day that had “KIDOU” aggressively penciled in. Sliding his finger along down the week, he checked deadlines and shoot dates to try and allocate times for chores. He could load the dishwasher today, it was full enough that it wouldn’t be a waste to run it right now. Some stuff needed to be hand-washed, that would prove to be a problem when he couldn’t stand for too long so maybe he could push that to tomorrow, but he needed that spatula…. A due date in two days, too, that was doable. He was almost done with that document. The photoshoot on Friday was tenuous though. If he didn’t recover by then, he wasn’t sure if it was a good move to spend almost a whole day on his feet. He hadn’t had to move a shoot in a while and felt horrible every time he did so for his health, but his manager always insisted it wasn’t a problem. Rubbing his knee to try and coax some blood flow into it, plans upon backup plans flowed through his head as Aphrodi tried to arrange things in the most efficient and convenient way possible while accounting for his unpredictable health. 

His eyes glanced down at the row for next week. It was less crammed with information at the moment, but a tentative name had been penciled in on Thursday. Fubuki tended to show up every other Thursday, and he tried to reserve that day for the boy and maybe not do anything stupid a few days before, so he wouldn’t have to try and hide a limp (nearly impossible, usually ending up looking like an idiot). Drinking the rest of his morning tea, he carefully got up while testing his right leg, then went to begin some morning stretches before starting work for the day. 

Focused on dealing with a particularly annoying pun in the document, Aphrodi nearly missed the phone call from Kidou right before noon. Leaning back from the computer screen, Aphrodi put the phone on speaker mode and spoke into it.

“Kidou! I’m sorry I almost missed your call, are you outside?”

“Yeah. I’m at the door, mind if I just come in?” 

“Go for it.” Aphrodi hung up then stretched and got out of the seat, neatly feeling his hip say goodbye to reality for a moment before he gave it a sharp crack, then shuffled over to open his home office door. By the time he reached the kitchen, Kidou had already let himself in and was loading up his dishwasher. 

“Oh I was going to do that after lunch,” Aphrodi weakly stated as he leaned against the doorway. 

“It’s fine, you only have that one shitty plate left on the counter and you hate using that one to eat. By the time we get back these will be clean,” Kidou responded evenly as he lifted in a particularly heavy pot. “How are you feeling today?”

“My knee sucks.” Aphrodi responded as he gave up on being a good host and slumped into the nearby dining chair. “It’s pinching a nerve today and I can’t feel part of my face. So overall normal.” 

“Right side?” Kidou had moved on to washing the spatula. Bless his heart.

“Yeah, same side as usual.”

“At least it’s the same symptoms. It’s been a while since your symptoms have changed.”

“It’s making me nervous, I’ve never stagnated this long with symptoms. Although I don’t even know where else it can go by now. My whole body has been pulled apart and reassembled at this point.” 

Kidou didn’t respond. The dishes had piled up worse than usual, and the laundry was almost spilling over the side of the hamper peeking through the open bathroom door. The flare up must be really bad this week, proven by the fact that Aphrodi hadn’t even noticed his lack of response and kept rubbing his knee. Finishing up the handwash, he went over to check the fridge only to find it appallingly empty. He glanced back at his quietly pensive friend, then elected not to say anything that might stress him out even more and went over to the laundry.

“I’ll get this loaded up, why don’t you change and then we can head out to the grocery store? I was heading there anyways.” Kidou said this every time, and even Aphrodi knew it was a thinly veiled lie, but he really appreciated Kidou watching out for him. Ever since he had let slip a few years ago that he was having trouble buying enough food at a time within his very low carrying capacity, Kidou would drop by every few weeks to drive him to the store and anywhere else he needed as he lived nearby and had a car. 

“Thanks, I really appreciate your help,” Aphrodi answered with visible relief as he carefully got out of the chair then limped over to his bedroom. Kidou’s goggles blocked out his narrowed eyes as he observed the limp. Worse than it had been in a while. 

“Did you do something stupid?” Kidou asked as they drove along the road towards the store. With the stress of household chores taken off his shoulders, Aphrodi was reverting back to his peppy frivolous self. 

“Nooooooooo,” Aphrodi protested. “Well OK maybe, maybe I ran in my designer loafers back home in the rain then went up the stairs. Maybe.” 

“Aphrodi! You know better! The STAIRS?!” Kidou had to keep himself from glaring at Aphrodi. Eyes on the road at all times, even when he wanted to smack the idiot next to him very badly on the head. 

“I was cold and didn’t want to wait for the elevator!” Aphrodi protested. He knew it had been stupid, but man did he look and feel awful that day which had led to many bad decisions. 

“Why were you even out in the rain? You normally hate going out when it’s cold or wet.” The grocery store entrance was rapidly approaching and Kidou carefully pulled into the parking lot, then maneuvered to a spot as close to the entrance as possible. Normally he wouldn’t mind walking, but with Aphrodi around that was a different matter. 

“I was meeting up with Fubuki.” Aphrodi attempted to finish buttoning his cardigan but gave up when his fingers protested. Kidou reached over and did it for him, both of them ignoring the process. Little things like this to make his life easier without making a fuss were all Aphrodi needed. If Kidou commented on it too much, Aphrodi would try and hide his problems in an attempt to avoid any pity or pressure. It had been by chance that he had found out about Aphrodi’s condition, having come across him struggling in the dorms as they had gone to the same university. Aphrodi had managed to pull through, but not after switching to a less stressful major and dropping out of all physical activities. Those had been dark times and he still remembered the shock and understanding of how serious the problem was when Aphrodi had shown up with his hair badly cut short one day to class after disappearing for a week. 

Carefully extracting himself out of the car, Aphrodi hummed a bit as he waltzed towards the grocery store. Perching himself against an empty shopping cart, he waited for Kidou to catch up. The pain in his knee was duller now, he surmised that it had definitely been the stress of all his responsibilities that had been making it even worse. Kidou quickly caught up, then adjusted his pace so he wouldn’t walk too fast for Aphrodi.

“You said you met up with Fubuki?” Kidou was holding his own basket, so as not to make Aphrodi’s cart too heavy. 

“Yeah, he shows up every few weeks here to help out Hiroto with some Fifth Sector finance stuff. Apparently he’s an auditor? I thought he was still in the pro leagues.” Aphrodi reached for some chips, ignoring the disapproving aura emanating from Kidou. 

“He stopped a while back, something about not being able to play forever,” Kidou was careful with how he phrased this, knowing that the fact that Aphrodi could barely even run anymore was a bitter thorn in his heart. 

“I see,” was Aphrodi’s dismissive reply as he continued putting chips into his cart. 

“Let’s go to a different section of the grocery store.” Kidou suggested as he grabbed the front of Aphrodi’s cart and aggressively steered him away from the boy’s comfort food.

\---

Aphrodi was lying in bed trying to see if gravity would do his body any favors by resetting a stray joint while checking Twitter when his phone buzzed and a text from Fubuki appeared.

* * *

Fubuki: I’ll be coming back into the city next Thursday. Would you be free then?

Aphrodi: o(≧∇≦o) YAAAA

Aphrodi: same time? 

Fubuki: Yes, it should be around the same time.

Aphrodi: o(*>ω<*)o OK

Aphrodi: lets try diff food

Aphrodi: [Sent a Location]

Fubuki: Sounds good, I’ll see you then. 

* * *

A second date! (Ok maybe just a meetup.) Suddenly his knee didn’t hurt that much anymore. Maybe Fubuki was the balm to all his troubles….

 _Cool off the inflammation,_ he thought to himself with a smile as he rolled onto his side, letting gravity work in a different direction now. 

\---

Aphrodi was early again, already perched primly at a table in the curry restaurant while reading a different book this time. Fubuki was slightly taken aback by Aphrodi’s chosen attire: a black mesh long-sleeved shirt on top of a complicated graphic tee (was that code...browser windows? Whatever. Aphrodi’s fashion sense had always been different.) with white pants (a bold choice for a curry restaurant). The fashion enigma was gently rotating an ankle while reading, so engrossed in the book that he startled a bit when Fubuki pulled out the chair across from him.

“Oh! Fubuki!” That same crumpled receipt appeared again and marked the page he was on. 

“Did you order already?” Fubuki asked as he sat down. Aphrodi had already been seated, so he scrambled to read the menu.

“Not yet, I was waiting for you, but I come here often so I already know what I want. You know, I think you’d like this one.” Aphrodi leaned over and tapped at the exact curry Fubuki’s eyes had been lingering on.

“It suits your taste, which I don’t think has changed very much.” He finished with a teasing smile. Blushing, Fubuki had to agree that Aphrodi was right, the omelette curry rice looked delicious. 

“Alright I trust you, I’ll order that one.” Pleased at this response, Aphrodi leaned back, then waited to make eye contact with a waiter who came over and took their orders. 

“How was this week? Same complaints? How is Hiroto doing?” Aphrodi tugged the mesh shirt back a bit as he asked these questions. He felt a lot better today, evidenced by the fact that he had managed to get into these way-too-tight pants without popping a joint. His ass looked great and that’s what mattered, not like Fubuki could appreciate it since they were sadly sitting down at a curry restaurant. 

“Hiroto’s doing alright, he also has to deal with his own company. He sometimes complains about how he’s too young to be running a company at his age, but the rest of Sun Garden are supporting him so he’s in good hands.” Fubuki eased off his shoulder bag, then remembered what was inside it. 

“Oh, this is for you, before I forget.” Reaching inside he took out a plastic bag that was carefully wrapped around a familiar pink umbrella. 

“Oh! Thank you,” Taking the package from Fubuki, Aphrodi was extremely disappointed that he had gotten it back this fast. He had been relying on Fubuki forgetting a few times, but the prince’s memory was sadly as good as it had been in the past. 

“And also this, I wanted to thank you for lending me an umbrella...a client of mine gifted me these tickets to a nearby aquarium a while back. If you don’t mind”— Fubuki pulled out two tickets from where they had been sandwiched in his planner and placed them carefully on the table between them—“maybe we can go when you have free time. The tickets expire in a month, since I sort of forgot about them for a while...” 

Aphrodi wanted to kiss whichever client had given Fubuki these tickets, he didn’t even care how accessible the place was. An aquarium date with Fubuki!!! 

“Yeah of course!” He eagerly responded, red eyes wide with excitement. “But wait, did you say around here? But you live so far…” Fubuki wouldn’t be able to fit in a whole aquarium trip after one of these work days, it would have to be a full day event if he wanted to get back home at the end of the day. Maybe he’d be able to stay over...but then Aphrodi would have to hide a bunch of stuff AND clean.

“I’ll just come up on a weekend, it’s alright.” Fubuki assured him, “I have been interested in the eels there anyways, apparently they have a whole eel exhibit.” 

_A WEEKEND with Fubuki at an AQUARIUM,_ Aphrodi wondered how soon he would see heaven at the rate things were progressing. While processing everything, the curry arrived and they both began to eat. Fubuki seemed well versed in what different aquariums offered as he explained how this eel exhibit was unique, causing Aphrodi to feel a bit of nervousness. _Were these experiences from past dates? Or just idle curiosity while traveling?_ Afraid of making the normally laconic boy revert back to small talk, he opted to just listen instead of asking the very intrusive questions running around his head. 

This time, the portion was small enough that they both finished their plates. After evenly splitting the payment between them, Aphrodi reached over after putting the subsequent receipt into his book and picked up the aquarium ticket. Turning it in his hand, he could see the shiny penguin mark embossed gently onto it. _Kidou would like this_ , he thought with a small smile. That man had more penguin plushies than he thought existed in the world. Fubuki’s ticket had a dolphin on it, evidently they had more than one ticket template to work with. 

“You can keep that one for now, I don’t need to hold onto both,” Fubuki’s voice cut through his penguin-filled thoughts. 

“Oh! OK,” The same book was opened up again and an aquarium ticket was inserted into it. Fubuki watched with mild amusement, as Aphrodi’s credit card had also appeared from inside that book. 

“I’ll let you know when I’m free, I have to go back and check my calendar. But my weekends are generally quite open.” Aphrodi tended to not go out too often anyways, and making plans was always difficult when he couldn’t completely rely on public transportation. This time he might have to ask Kidou for a favor to make it there on time.

“Alright, let me know, I tend to be free on weekends too,” Fubuki flashed him a genuine smile that melted his heart. This relationship was just fine, and he was happy to keep it this way if it meant more moments like this. Getting up, his ankle gave out and he lurched a bit in surprise, causing him to steady himself on the table and almost dropping his book. 

“Careful!” Fubuki cried out as he reached over and steadied him. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, it’s just these shoes,” Aphrodi blithely responded with a casual smile. Fubuki’s grip was so strong on his shoulder, it hurt a bit as it pressed on a bad nerve but he didn’t really mind. “I’ll be heading out now, I actually do have a deadline to make today so I can’t stay for very long.” The two of them made their way out of the restaurant and Aphrodi once again walked in the direction opposite of the train station. Fubuki’s teal eyes were full of worry as he followed Aphrodi's movements. That little ankle trip earlier seemed to have left Aphrodi paler than before. 

“I’ll see you soon!” Aphrodi called back with a wave as he headed down the street. Fubuki waved back, then let his hand drop down as he watched the receding figure. He had to suppress the extremely random thought that Aphrodi’s butt looked really nice today. Fubuki didn’t understand why Aphrodi was heading down a different road, presumably back to his house. The curry restaurant this time was on the opposite side of the train station so he should’ve walked partially back with Fubuki…unless maybe the bus he took ran through that street. Mulling over these thoughts, he turned and headed towards the train station while trying to remember what weekend train ticket prices were like.


	4. ankle

“Are you going to be alright?” Kidou was turning onto the road leading into the aquarium as Aphrodi fussed with his hair in the passenger seat. Sure, it was just a ponytail, but it had to loop around correctly over his shoulder. 

“I will! I didn’t do anything stupid last week, treated my body like a temple.” Aphrodi sagely responded. He patted the taut ponytail that was perching on his shoulder now. Perfect.

“It’s a crumbling one.” 

“Hey! Don’t worry, I wore my ankle braces too, I’ll be fine.” Aphrodi glanced down at his wine-red velvet boots that perfectly covered up his brace. This would ensure that he could walk the whole day without totally regretting it for the next month. He’d only slightly regret it.

Leaning back into his seat, he checked the time and was relieved that he was early. If he’d gone through public transport...all those stairs, waiting around, unable to get a seat because he didn’t look injured from the outside. By the time he got to the aquarium he would’ve been too tired or in pain to really enjoy it.

“Thanks for this, Kidou,” Aphrodi glanced over at the man who he recognized as a veritable genius, but was currently his chauffeur. 

“It’s alright, the faster you get together with Fubuki the faster I can get rid of you,” Kidou blandly replied as he turned into the drop-off zone. Aphrodi immediately blushed in indignation. 

“It’s not a fully recognized date! It’s just returning a favor...” He trailed off at the end, having spent the last week convincing himself to NOT come on too strong to Fubuki. 

“Yeah and this isn’t the number one date spot in the city,” Kidou sarcastically answered as he gently braked to a halt at the curb. “Let me know when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up. Don’t try getting home on your own late at night, it’ll be a repeat of that rose garden incident.”

“I was fine after that incident, other than a few scratches OK?”

“And like three more months of physical therapy to undo what happened. Just be careful.” Kidou was still worried for his friend, who tended to overdo things at times in the heat of the moment only to end up suffering for a few weeks. Fubuki showing back up in his life had greatly upped the chances of Aphrodi overdoing anything, and he’d be the one who’d have to clean up the mess. 

“I will, I will, thanks and see you later!” Aphrodi carefully stepped out of the car and onto the curb, shutting the door behind him, then heading towards the aquarium entrance. Crisp white tiles intersected aqueducts that lined the stairs upwards. Aphrodi glanced to the side, carefully gripping a railing as he steeled himself for the upwards climb. The other paths would take twice as long and were too roundabout for him to bother with when he felt fine. After dragging himself to the top, he spotted Fubuki already sitting at the dolphin fountain in front of the aquarium. 

“Fubuki!” Aphrodi excitedly called out as he hurried over, checking the time on his phone as he did so. He had tried to get here 20 minutes early, but by the looks of it, Fubuki had been sitting there for a while already. 

“Looks like both of us are quite early,” Fubuki replied with a smile as he picked up the thin cardigan that was folded next to him. Aphrodi had to resist overtly staring as this was the first time he’d seen Fubuki in casual clothes since that tragic outfit the man had worn for Hakuren’s match. Aphrodi hadn’t even gotten to see much of it due to Fubuki being on the sidelines, but every time the camera had panned across he’d winced a bit. Evidently, his fashion sense hadn’t improved in ten years because Fubuki was wearing the strangest bear-patterned graphic tee that had a small, realistic bear embroidered in the middle of the shirt paired with long khaki pants. Khaki, to an aquarium. Aphrodi internally winced again.

“How long have you been waiting?” Aphrodi followed as Fubuki headed towards the aquarium entrance, both of them pulling out tickets to show the receptionist.

“Not too long, just that the morning trains are about an hour apart so there’s no good time. I’m either extremely early or late,” Fubuki vaguely replied as he accepted the ticket stub back and pocketed it. 

“We could’ve moved the time,” Aphrodi weakly suggested as he accepted a map of the exhibits from the enthusiastic receptionist. It had been years since he had last gone to an aquarium, so everything was quite fresh to him. Spreading it open, Fubuki took one side and they pulled the map taut between the two of them to better plan out their route. 

“Do you have anywhere you want to go see?” Fubuki asked as he casually tried to calculate how to best reach the eel exhibit. 

“No, it’s been a long time so I’m happy just following you if you have a set route,” Aphrodi responded, although the flamingo exhibit looked cool. Maybe he should’ve worn the flamingo shirt. His outfit today consisted of black skinny jeans and a navy and white pinstriped chiffon blouse coupled with a bordeaux velvet ribbon that matched his shoes. Standing next to Fubuki, he felt distinctly overdressed. Despite having agonized over this outfit for hours, he had failed to factor in the problem of Fubuki’s abysmal fashion sense. 

Taking Aphrodi’s words to heart, Fubuki happily led the way. The eel exhibit was at the farthest corner of the aquarium, which caused them to detour to every exhibit along the route in order to satisfy Aphrodi’s curiosity. Pausing in the middle at a strategically placed gift shop, Aphrodi was admiring some of the marine-themed jewelry when he noticed Fubuki looking at an eel graphic-tee. Two patterned eels knotted into a pretzel shape were printed on the white shirt, something he found decidedly ugly. Fubuki then proceeded to pick one up off the rack and closely inspect it. 

“Fubuki....” Walking over from the jewelry rack, he began to attempt an intervention.

“Isn’t this cute? We could both get matching ones as a nice memory of today!” Fubuki excitedly told him as he held up the shirt.

“Oh-of course.” Aphrodi glibly agreed, beginning to understand where that bear shirt had come from. He’d gladly buy a trash bag if it meant he could match outfits with Fubuki.... Heart crying as he pulled out his card to purchase the shirt, he wondered if even drastic tie-dye could save the look. The gift shop bag also had eels patterned on it, which were starting to look a bit endearing to him due to Fubuki’s enthusiasm. 

Trailing along behind Fubuki as they left the gift shop, Aphrodi suddenly felt a sharp lancing pain from his knee. Gritting his teeth, he shook off the feeling of fatigue and hurried along, determined to make today last as long as it could, even if his body was protesting. By the time they got to the cafe, Aphrodi desperately needed to sit down and rest for a while. Elegantly collapsing into a chair, his appetite was thin as he tried not to focus too much on the pain in his legs. Fubuki joined him shortly afterwards at the table with his own plate of salmon, and quickly began eating while discussing the exhibits they’d seen so far. 

“The deep sea room was nice, I didn’t think they’d have a mola mola here,” Fubuki smiled, remembering how fascinated Aphrodi had been and the sheer number of mola mola pictures that were now on the model’s phone. 

“Ah. Yeah, that was nice.” Aphrodi picked a bit at his fried tilapia, then nibbled on a sprig of salad. Fubuki looked up at this surprisingly curt response and saw that Aphrodi seemed to have a distant look in his eyes.

“Is something on your mind?” Fubuki interjected, worried. Aphrodi froze for a moment, then continued picking at his food.

“No, nothing much, sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he mustered up a smile and directed it at Fubuki across the table. 

“Late deadline?” Fubuki looked back down as he cut off a piece of salmon with his fork. 

_Ah. That familiar warning pain in the right hip._

“No, I was thinking of this trip with you and couldn’t sleep.” He delighted in watching Fubuki miss cutting off a clean portion and instead smushing the poor salmon down onto the plate. A slight rose tint had crept onto his neck up to his ears. Good to know he still blushed the same way. Aphrodi wanted to reach over and give a gentle kiss onto his cheek, just like old times. 

“Please don’t joke like that,” Fubuki stiffly responded as he corralled the stray salmon slice back onto the fork. 

_It wasn’t a joke._ Aphrodi sadly thought as he tried to finish the rest of his plate. Everything seemed so heavy right now, emotions included. Shifting a bit to accommodate his bad hip, he wondered how much longer he’d be able to last before having to lie down for a week straight afterwards. 

\---

“Ah! Look! There’s so many of them!” Aphrodi almost felt like Fubuki had switched personalities again with how excited the boy was over some slimy eels. Fubuki had hurried over to the main entrance of the exhibit, complete with huge eel cutouts hanging everywhere. 

“Do you want a picture?” Aphrodi asked, deciding to indulge Fubuki as much as possible.

“Oh...um,” Fubuki hesitated, seeing how it was mostly children taking photos near the entrance. 

“Come on, who cares that you’re an adult here, I’ll take the photo for you,” Aphrodi pulled out his phone while Fubuki protested. During this interaction, both missed a staff member approaching them from the side. 

“Excuse me, if you’d like, I can take a picture of you two,” the friendly staff member with a vest full of eel pins offered up her services to what she assumed was a couple trying to decide who got to go first. 

“Oh!” Aphrodi couldn’t believe his luck. Before Fubuki could refuse the offer he shoved his phone into her hands. “Yes please, thank you!” 

Dragging Fubuki over to the middle and ignoring Fubuki’s panic, he guided him to face the camera by subtly placing his hand around Fubuki’s waist.

 _Oh lord he’s even more fit now._ Aphrodi silently thanked Fubuki’s pro soccer league past as his fingers brushed firm muscle under the shirt. 

“Relax!” Aphrodi chided Fubuki playfully as he bumped his shoulder into the frozen prince. “It’s just a picture.”

“Easy for you to say, you model-” Fubuki’s flustered reply was cut short by the staff member beginning her countdown to the photo. Aphrodi sidled closer until he was nearly pressed up against Fubuki’s side, making sure the camera got his good angle. Gratefully retrieving his phone from the staff member after profusely thanking her, he checked the photo as Fubuki hid around the corner in the eel exhibit. He looked good in the photo (of course), but Fubuki had deigned to actually smile for once. A worried gentle smile that still had that soft touch from years before. Lingering on it for a moment, he finally turned and went to accost his fellow aquarium guest. The pain creeping in his back could wait. 

Catching up to Fubuki who was currently reading an eel pamphlet, he wandered around the exhibit figuring that educating himself on eels wasn’t a bad choice if it was a possible Fubuki Conversation Topic. Some cute garden eels were swaying in a nearby tank that attracted his attention, and unfortunately the attention of several children, too. Leaning over to take a closer look, he was trying to read the description when an especially excited child accidentally barreled into his thigh. 

_Shit._

Steadying himself as quickly as he could on the nearby wall, Aphrodi could barely hear the apologies from the child’s mother as he tried to look for a place to sit. Some cushioned seats were hidden near the fire escape and he waved off the concerned parent as he limped over to collapse in place. His leg had been walking the fine line between “recoverable” and “you’ll regret this” and had been pushed straight over the edge by a child’s headbutt. 

_I should call Kidou, but what time is it...Fubuki, too, but it’s during his favorite exhibit. I don’t want to make a fuss, he doesn’t even know..._ Scrambled thoughts ran through his head as he tried to rub his knuckles along his thigh to temporarily ease the tense muscles. Once they were tight like this from an outside shock they’d be hell to get loose again. He felt so tired. Today had been such a fun day, but far outside his usual lifestyle. He probably should’ve worked up to this by walking through some gardens first, or a preschool to learn how to dodge reckless children. Taking deep breaths, he leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the overwhelming pain of his body desperately trying to get his attention. 

Fubuki wandered through the exhibit, fascinated with all the eels on display here and appreciating how much effort had been put into making each tank as close to the native environment as possible. Passing by a small tank, his eye caught on a small golden eel that seemed to be showing off its distinct brown speckled pattern by actively swimming around the tank. It reminded him of a certain showy golden-haired model that would probably delight in seeing a similarly vain eel. Realizing that Aphrodi wasn’t hovering near him like usual, Fubuki looked around the exhibit for him. The exhibit was structured like a tubular maze to emulate a moray eel’s habitat, so he wound up backtracking a few times, growing more desperate as he couldn’t easily find someone who usually stood out like a flamboyantly sore thumb. Upon turning the corner into the garden eel exhibit, he spotted a familiar figure leaning against the wall, tucked away in a corner. 

“Aphrodi!” Fubuki called out, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of excited children. Hurrying over, he slowed down as he saw the Aphrodi’s eyes were closed, looking almost as if he was a weary angel. _Is he sleeping? He did mention that he was a bit tired._ Cautiously approaching from the side, he hesitated, then gently called out his name.

“Aphrodi. Are you alright?” Startled back into reality by the sound of Fubuki’s voice so closeby, Aphrodi instantly regretted sitting straight back up as pain shot through his hip again. 

“Agh! Oh Fubuki, I’m sorry, I was just resting for a bit,” He needed to give his leg a good shake, but it was far too awkward when Fubuki was staring at him like that. 

“I’m sorry, are you tired? It’s been a long day, hasn’t it.” Fubuki sat down next to Aphrodi, trying to show that he didn’t mind resting for a bit either. 

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault,” He carefully angled his leg to ease off where a particularly angry bone was stabbing a nerve. “I just don’t get out often anymore so it’s taken more energy than I expected today.” Fubuki was quiet, thinking about how Aphrodi used to love exploring new places and always had jam-packed weekends. He wondered how these ten years apart had changed Aphrodi in ways he couldn’t even see. 

“Well, let’s rest a bit then we can head out. You’re already tired and it wouldn’t be good to push yourself.” Fubuki was content with all that he had seen today already. The eel exhibit really had been spectacular. The cool shirt had been an unexpected bonus, too. Not knowing that the last phrase he had said particularly stung at Aphrodi’s heart, an echo of what Kidou and some other close friends always tried to remind him of. 

“But we haven’t seen all of the aquarium…” Aphrodi trailed off, unsure if he could even handle the rest of it, but he didn’t want to ruin the day like this. 

“I only really wanted to see the eel exhibit so I’m happy,” Fubuki reassured him. “And besides, I have to catch the train back, too. It would be bad if I missed the train I already pre-purchased a ticket for.” He flashed a small smile at the end, knowing that this was how they had met by chance. 

“Alright.” Aphrodi pulled out his phone to text Kidou his plans, knowing that Kidou would have to take a while to navigate traffic in order to get to him on time. Fubuki watched curiously, realizing that he didn’t know what type of transportation his tired friend had used to get here. 

“Did you take the train?” A special line ran into the aquarium for ease of access, and he assumed that Aphrodi would have used it for convenience since he lived in the city. 

“Ah, no.” Pocketing his phone, Aphrodi steeled himself then got back up, ignoring the angry protest of his hip. He’d just have to make it back to the entrance and collapse into Kidou’s car to make it through the day. “Kidou lent me a hand and dropped me off, he’ll come pick me up when we’re at the entrance, I just let him know.” 

“Kidou! You guys…” _talk regularly?_ Was what Fubuki really wanted to say but realized it was quite rude. The two of them had been on opposing sides during the whole Fifth Sector fiasco so he didn’t think they were on good terms. 

“Yeah, we talk regularly,” Aphrodi responded with a teasing smile, knowing what Fubuki really wanted to ask. “It was a bit of a surprise when I showed up with Kidokawa but we’re still good friends. We went to the same university and he’s helped me out a lot.” 

_So he’s been in contact with Kidou for ten years…._ The knowledge felt bitter in his heart, although it was his fault since he was the one that hadn’t reached out to Aphrodi during that time. They slowly walked through the main hallway of the aquarium, Aphrodi thanking the building designers for making it a relatively short path if all the branching exhibits were ignored. He was feeling relief upon making it out of the building when he suddenly had to face his greatest enemy: stairs.

_Oh no, I’m going to die here_ , he sadly thought as Fubuki already began going down the stairs. Hesitating, he fought a heated internal battle, then decided to go for the wheelchair ramp. It would be easier on his knees and ankles, avoiding the hard impact that tile stairs would cause. Hoping that Fubuki wouldn’t notice, he knew it was a futile thought by the time he reached the bottom of the ramp and saw a pensive look in those teal eyes. 

“I just wanted to try something new,” he lied as he went to sit down on the nearby raised planter edge. Leaning back, he accidentally cracked his hip and winced. At least his back felt a bit more relief now. Fubuki didn’t say anything, hovering nearby with a look of worry in his eyes. Before he could voice some more concerned thoughts, a boxy grey car pulled up on the side with a distinct goggles-wearing driver at the wheel. 

“Oh! Kidou’s here!” Even Fubuki could hear the relief in Aphrodi’s voice as he pushed himself up and headed over to the car. Fubuki trailed behind, starting to act like an apprehensive sheep dog with how Aphrodi was behaving. 

“Fubuki, good to see you,” Kidou nodded as he pushed open the passenger door for Aphrodi who looked quite pale. Not a good sign. 

“Good to see you, Kidou, I didn’t know you lived nearby.” Fubuki distinctly remembered that Kidou’s family home wasn’t around this city. The sprawling mansion was located in the mountains near Raimon, so he was surprised that Kidou wasn’t living there.

“I moved out during university to be closer to school and ended up getting a job here and never moved back,” Kidou explained as Aphrodi buckled himself up. “Aphrodi, how are you feeling?” 

“Fine,” came the curt response along with a flash of angry crimson eyes. Taking this as a “just shut up and drive” Kidou nodded over at Fubuki.

“We’ll catch up another time, I’m going to take this princess home.”

“Kidou!”

Smiling at this interaction, Fubuki waved goodbye to the unlikely pair in the car as it sped off down the road. Turning around, he headed towards the train station entrance to catch his own ride home. Aphrodi’s behavior had been normal today, but near the end he had been drifting more and more distant…. Brows furrowing, he tried to make sense of what might’ve been the cause. Upon reaching the ticket station, he realized that Aphrodi never talked about his past, only ever engaging with other conversation topics. Wondering what might’ve happened, he boarded the train and resolved to dig a little deeper next time if he could. 

“So did you not tell Fubuki about your illness?” Kidou casually asked as they drove along the highway, breaking the silence in the thrumming car.

Aphrodi’s frosty response of pure silence was all he needed as an answer.

“Aphrodi, he’s not going to treat you differently in a bad way. You should know to trust him above anyone else.” Kidou tried to convince Aphrodi, but found it difficult when he couldn’t look directly at him while speaking. Aphrodi sighed unhappily and leaned further back against the chair to ease the throbbing pain of his ankle. 

“I just don’t want to ruin his image of me...if he knew…”

“It won’t ruin anything! You can’t sustain this charade for much longer, Aphrodi. Listen to me-”

“It’ll be fine.” Aphrodi rudely cut Kidou off. The repressed and irritated tone in his voice made Kidou stop pushing. Aphrodi was in enough internal pain right now that he didn’t need to rub salt in the wound. When the foolish boy recovered after this he’d try to talk sense into Aphrodi again. Telling Fubuki directly would only be a breach of trust for both sides. Fubuki would have to hear it from Aphrodi himself, one way or another. Letting the drive lapse back into silence, he quickly arrived near Aphrodi’s apartment complex and parked in a guest spot, fully intending to help him back into the apartment. 

“No Kidou, I’ll be alright. I just needed a short rest.” Aphrodi stopped Kidou from turning off the car engine as he unbuckled his seatbelt. Climbing out of the car, he began to reach back in for the gift bag only to find Kidou holding it, and had peeked inside it.

“This…”

“Fubuki wanted to match.” Aphrodi hurriedly took the bag back from him. “I know, it’s-”

“Is this design museum only? I sort of want it.” Aphrodi stared at his good friend in shock. Kidou normally dressed formally on all occasions, and now Aphrodi was extremely grateful that that was the default.

“It’s...yeah…if I had known, I would’ve gotten you one….” Instead he had gotten Kidou a penguin keychain plush, which he fished out of the bag to gift him while they were both present. 

“Oh this is pretty cool, too. Maybe I should bring Haruna over to this aquarium sometime. Tell me about it next time I drop by,” Kidou smiled as he carefully placed the keychain in the middle cupholder. Turning serious, he rolled down the window after Aphrodi closed the door.

“Think on what I said, Aphrodi. And let me know if you need any help in the next few days, OK?”

Aphrodi stood there in the evening light, silent as he refused to acknowledge the truth of Kidou’s words. 

“I will,” he lied, then turned back around and limped up the ramp towards his apartment building. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author just really likes eels and wanted to write about them for a fic. My favorite eel is moray eel!!!!!!  
> \---  
> Also at my university there was this elevator that shut down after 6PM. So like after 6PM disabilities don't exist or something. I had to take the long way around up the stairs and that really sucked when my ankles were bad!!! Yes I'm still salty.


	5. knee

Fubuki gazed at his phone screen in concern as he waited for Kazemaru at the park. The sun had just risen and the entire park was basked in a gentle orange glow, warming up the cold park bench that he was sitting on. Checking through his messages, he barely registered what was happening around him until a shadow fell across his phone, complete with some stray blue strands of hair that brushed over his hand.

“Hey.”

Fubuki looked up to the sound of that voice to see Kazemaru smiling down at him. 

“What’s got you on the phone so early?”

Fubuki wasn’t the type to spend his free time scrolling through his phone. Normally, Kazemaru would show up to see Fubuki staring at some squirrels in the distance, or watching some birds fly overhead. 

“Mmmm...well, Aphrodi hasn’t responded to me in a month…” Fubuki felt silly for worrying about something like this, but couldn’t help but feel that he might’ve done something wrong at the aquarium. Aphrodi had texted him afterwards with pictures that had been taken that day and hadn’t responded since. Fubuki had sent a text saying that he’d be in the city in another two weeks but had received no response and ended up spending that day alone after work.

 _Am I being ghosted?_ Fubuki tried to push that thought out of his head. Aphrodi was the one person he wouldn’t expect to ghost him. Even when they had broken up, Aphrodi had straightforwardly spoken about his feelings and tried to make it a clean break. Evidently not clean enough if his heart was in turmoil over not getting a text reply ten years later. 

“Has he mentioned anything on his private Twitter?” He’d been meaning to ask Kazemaru this, but wanted to ask directly so he didn’t seem too stalker-ish. Kazemaru tried to mask his look of surprise but wasn’t very successful in doing so. Sitting down on the bench next to Fubuki, he pulled his phone out and clicked open the app to do some good ol’ friend stalking. 

“Last time he tweeted was about...two weeks ago, and it’s a complaint about Gouenji,” Kazemaru gave a short huff of laughter as he showed Fubuki the tweet. It was a blurry picture of his fading ponytail tip, something about split ends and an angry @. 

“I wonder if he’s alright if he hasn’t tweeted in two weeks,” Fubuki noted with concern. There was an excited aquarium tweet before that with lots of pictures of all the different fish that were there. Fubuki recognized some of the mola mola photos and these were dated about three weeks ago. 

“He’s like that, he tweets in spurts,” Kazemaru noted as he scrolled through a few more of the bellbird’s tweets. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it, he’ll pop back up in a month or so. He’s probably just really busy with work in general and he gets tired easily so he might’ve just forgotten to reply.”

“I guess…,” Fubuki uneasily replied. He felt like something more than a simple “just tired” was at play here and it was really starting to bother him. “Do you think Gouenji might know what’s happening with him? He managed to coerce Aphrodi to work for Fifth Sector for a bit so he might have some information.”

“He definitely has some kind of dirt on Aphrodi to make him get such an ugly dip dye job, wouldn’t hurt to ask if you have his contact information,” Kazemaru got up and began to stretch, ready to move on from the topic as he had nothing else to offer. 

“I do...I’ll give it a shot, thanks Kazemaru,” Fubuki stood up and pocketed his phone, joining Kazemaru in some warm-up stretches before going for their usual run. 

\---

Gouenji was getting dressed to take Yuuka out for dinner when his phone rang. Sighing, he picked it up to turn off the ringer only to see that the caller was-

“Fubuki?!” Gouenji’s shocked voice came through the speaker louder than Fubuki had expected, causing him to wince and pull the phone back from his ear a good distance.

“Hi Gouenji, do you have a minute?” Clutching a pillow to his chest, he still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but Kazemaru had endorsed it, so it couldn’t be all that bad.

“Yeah I have a bit, what’s the matter?” Cautious, Gouenji wasn’t sure why Fubuki would suddenly call him out of the blue. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d received a call from the normally call-avoidant friend. 

“Ah I was wondering....if you knew what Aphrodi has been up to these last few weeks. He hasn’t been active in a...few weeks, and hasn’t replied to any of my messages.” 

Silence met him from the other side of the phone. A lot of things were going through Gouenji’s mind right now. 

“Gouenji?”

“Ah yeah, sorry, no I don’t keep that close contact with him...if you wanted to know I’d ask Kidou. Kidou’s the one he’s closest to.” 

“Oh, yeah I should’ve thought of that,” Fubuki was glad this was over the phone so Gouenji couldn’t see him blush with embarrassment. “I um...hope you’re doing well.” he weakly tried to follow up now that his initial question was out of the way. 

“I’m alright.” Gouenji stiffly replied. About as all right as an ex-soccer dictator trying to assimilate back into society could be.

“That’s good…,” Fubuki felt compelled to explain why he was calling out of the blue. “Actually I asked you because Aphrodi’s last tweet was at you...I was wondering, what bet was it that made him dye his hair?” _And did you hate him so much you picked such a weird color?_

“Ah…” Gouenji wavered for a bit, then figured he already had enough people going for his life that one more didn’t matter. 

“It was over if you would contact him after leaving Hakuren.” 

“WHAT.”

“Something about you being more keen to seek out your old soccer friends-ok sorry I have to go, Yuuka’s waiting for me. Bye.” Speaking rapidly at the end, Gouenji hung up before Fubuki could even reply, leaving him flustered with the pillow forgotten on the side. Finally pulling on his pants, Gouenji resolved once again to stay out of love problems. It really wasn’t his thing to be in the middle of these things. 

Speechless, Fubuki laid on his bed trying to make sense of this news. Contacting Aphrodi?! Why would he...but it was true, he had started reaching out after that incident. Kazemaru had led him to Endou, and then Kidou in turn. He just hadn’t had to go too far to find anyone else now that he was in the heart of the Resistance. If he had known that Aphrodi had been at Kidokawa, would he have stayed? Dozens of what-if’s ran through his head, causing him to dredge up uneasy past feelings that he had repressed. 

Aphrodi...why was he trying so hard to make sure that fool was alright? Rolling around on his bed, Fubuki finally had to face the facts. He cared for that fool, more than he’d care for “just a friend.” If Aphrodi was sick or suffering right now...his heart couldn’t bear it. He wouldn’t mind trying for a relationship again, something that he’d been avoiding thinking about. It would be a lie to say he hadn’t noticed how Aphrodi looked at him, or how he’d hover closeby trying to sneak in a touch here or there. He’d been ignoring all of these signs, naively clinging to his belief that they could stay simply as friends. Now that he was the one being ignored, it felt like karma hitting him hard after doing the same to Aphrodi for ten years. Rubbing his eyes, he sighed, then picked the phone up again. One last person to call. 

“Fubuki?” Kidou was also surprised to get a call out of nowhere. Fubuki wasn’t the type to just call and chat, he definitely wanted something if he called. 

“Ah. Hi Kidou, do you have a moment?” Fubuki steadily punched the pillow next to him trying to subtly vent his frustrations at himself at the same time. 

“Yeah I can spare a few minutes, is something wrong?” Kidou sat back in his office chair, wondering if the moon would be blue tonight for Fubuki to directly call him. 

“Well...honestly, I was wondering if you knew how Aphrodi has been these past few weeks. He stopped replying to me a while back and I’m sort of worried….” The pillow was now being steadily rolled around with one hand.

_Oh. I forgot how sharp Fubuki was._ Kidou should’ve seen this coming. Genius as he was, he hadn’t expected for Fubuki to actually keep tabs and care so soon. The moon was definitely going to be blue tonight.

“He’s...well...,” Kidou hesitated, unsure if he should just tell Fubuki everything over the phone. It really wasn’t his place...thoughts churning in his head, an idea suddenly sparked in his mind.

“Actually, Fubuki, when is the next time you’ll be in the city?” 

“Oh uh, I’d be dropping by tomorrow, I usually go every two weeks so…” Fubuki was desperately trying to make it as if this was just a very big coincidence that he was calling the day before he’d be there.

“Oh that’s great, why don’t we go visit him together? I’ll pick you up and bring you over to where he lives and we can give him a checkup. He tends to forget to leave the house sometimes nowadays.” 

“I don’t know...wouldn’t I be surprising him?” _What if he doesn’t actually want to see me?_ The ever-present fear gnawed away inside Fubuki’s heart. 

“It’ll be a nice surprise, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” _And probably scream at me afterwards but it’ll be worth it to move them along like this._ Kidou mentally made a note to also bring over some groceries. It had been a while since he’d last helped out, hopefully Aphrodi was eating at least a meal a day.

“I don’t-”

“Text me a good time to meet you and a location, otherwise I’ll just call Hiroto and figure it out.” Kidou firmly put an end to the conversation, knowing that if he let it go any longer it would just become free counseling. “See you tomorrow, sorry, I have a meeting to get to.”

“Kidou- agh! It’s past work hours!” Fubuki watched in vain as the call was dropped, then halfheartedly punched the defeated pillow next to him. Back to work for now, but he could barely focus with all the questions he had in mind about Aphrodi. He wasn’t even sure what expression to wear when Aphrodi answered the door with him there…apologetic? Pleading? Confused???

\---

“Kidou, are you sure about this?” Fubuki was ready to throw himself out of the car at any moment, and was regretting every second that he didn’t. 

“Yes I am, now seriously, just trust me, he’s going to be fine seeing you.” Kidou knew that after this lie Fubuki wouldn’t trust him anymore, but whatever. 

Glancing down at the grocery bags near his feet, Fubuki wondered why Kidou would be bringing them over. Aphrodi lived alone, he knew that much, and now with all the bits and pieces he was seeing from each side of his life Fubuki was really growing concerned for the boy’s lifestyle. They pulled up to a sleek apartment high-rise, more modern compared to the ones around it. Fubuki noted how Kidou hadn’t had to use GPS to get here, and how easily he pulled into a guest parking spot without even slowing down. _I guess he comes here pretty often._ Fubuki wasn’t sure how to feel about that. His inner turmoil was further heightened by Kidou just casually punching in the key code to the outer gate, then pulling out a key fob to get the elevator to move. 

“Do you...come here often?” Fubuki ventured a general question as the elevator slowly rose up through the floors.

“Yeah, every once in a while. I serve as his emergency contact so I have all this,” Kidou explained while shaking the key fob he was holding, noting the turbulent look in Fubuki’s eyes. 

“Oh that’s right. He doesn’t have family here…” Fubuki vaguely remembered that Aphrodi was the only one not in Korea. All alone, just like him…

The elevator pinged gently, and the two of them walked out with bags of groceries in hand. Glancing around at the bare hallways, Fubuki would’ve walked straight past Aphrodi’s door if Kidou hadn’t stopped and knocked on it in front of him. 

“I like to knock before just barging in, it’s not good to scare him,” Kidou absentmindedly explained his behavior again. _Fubuki would need to know all of this soon enough._

Silence greeted the two of them, and Kidou sighed as he swiped the key fob across the door handle. A quiet click greeted him and he pushed his way inside. 

“Aphrodi!” Kidou called out as he entered. Fubuki hesitated, then walked in after him only to be greeted with a dark room. All of the curtains were closed, and furniture was placed in odd positions, coupled with towels and clothes strewn left and right. Kidou seemed unfazed by this, walking over to where the small kitchen was located to the right and depositing his groceries on the floor by the fridge. 

“Can you open up the curtains? I’m going to go check in on him,” Kidou whispered to Fubuki as he took the groceries that Fubuki was carrying and put them down where the rest were. “And put away the groceries too, if you can.” 

Fubuki nodded and headed over to do as he was told, carefully avoiding stepping on anything only to knock into the chairs that seemed conveniently placed right in the middle of his path. The fridge was appallingly empty, with only a few wilting green onions in the back corner. Throwing that out, Fubuki carefully began restocking the fridge with what Kidou had bought, noting that some of them seemed to be pre-packaged meals. Getting up after stowing away all the groceries and tidying up the remaining plastic bags, he was opening up the curtains when some muffled noises caused him to turn around.

“-brought you some food, have you been eating properly?” Kidou’s voice came around the corner as a door opened. 

“Yes mom,” came a sarcastic reply, but Fubuki’s heart leapt at the sound. _Aphrodi was here! And alive!_

Kidou came into the living room first, then Aphrodi who was blinking owlishly at the sudden flood of light. His hair was down, something Fubuki hadn’t seen in years, and he was dressed in an overly baggy old t-shirt and - Fubuki had to quickly avert his eyes at this - some colorful boxers. Glancing back up, he made eye contact with a startled pair of crimson red eyes that widened even more upon seeing just who exactly was in his living room. 

“KIDOU!” Aphrodi screamed then turned to try and run back inside his office. Kidou had been expecting this and grabbed him in a bear hug to drag him over to a nearby chair.

“DON’T TRY TO FIGHT ME, YOU’RE JUST GOING TO HURT YOURSELF.” Kidou yelled over Aphrodi’s panicked cries. Fubuki was frozen in place, unable to look away from the one-sided WWE match happening in front of him. A vague part of his brain noted that Aphrodi seemed to have neon pink tape stuck over his knees and legs, made even more prominent by the flailing happening in front of him. 

After some fussing, Aphrodi was now angrily sitting in a slightly askew wooden chair on the side of the living room. Resentful red eyes glared up at Kidou while firmly avoiding looking at Fubuki, who felt distinctly awkward still standing in the same spot. 

“[You’re a right bastard, you know that right?]” Fubuki’s confused look at Aphrodi’s words let him know that he was right in using English to complain at Kidou. 

“It’s for your own good,” Kidou responded evenly, Fubuki was relieved that at least Kidou wasn’t responding in English. His own had never been that good to begin with, but he had a feeling Aphrodi had just used a bad word and was not happy. 

“Just explain, Fubuki’s worried about you,” Kidou verbally prodded Aphrodi. Before Aphrodi could angrily snap back, he disappeared down the hallway. “I’ll go clean up.” 

“Kidou!” Aphrodi’s exasperated cry was lost as a door shut down the hallway. Left alone with Fubuki, he didn’t know where to look or what to do. Fubuki snapped out of his shock over the last few minutes, which had truthfully felt like an hour, and cautiously dragged over a stray chair and sat down across from Aphrodi.

“Aphrodi… are you alright?” Fubuki knew the answer to this already. Aphrodi wasn’t alright, looking wrecked and tired albeit still stunningly beautiful with the sunlight bouncing off of his pale skin and loose hair. Shaking off the last few thoughts, Fubuki tried to hold eye contact with him only to see those red eyes avert from his gaze.

“I didn’t...want you to see me like this,” was Aphrodi’s strangled response. He had nowhere to run now, nowhere to hide away all his imperfections.

“Aphrodi, tell me, what’s wrong? What’s happening here?” Fubuki’s voice was full of pleading, causing Aphrodi to feel ashamed of how he had treated this entire situation.

“I...I have a chronic illness,” Aphrodi spoke slowly, gauging Fubuki’s reaction with every word. His hand reached down and began absentmindedly rubbing his knee again. The stress of the situation was inadvertently causing him to tense up and hurt even more.

“It started mostly because of a side effect of the Aqua of the Gods that manifested in university as it badly accelerated an underlying genetic condition. My joints are weak, my knees and ankles don’t work so well anymore-” Aphrodi picked at the pink tape on his legs, “-these are to help relieve some of the pain and hold my joints together so my muscles can rest a bit.” Fubuki was silent in between all of this, realizing how much walking he had put Aphrodi through during their aquarium trip. How Aphrodi had started faltering near the end, avoiding stairs and trying to stay near the wall to support himself. Little things that he hadn’t realized until now. 

“I hurt a lot, and I’m tired all the time, I’m sorry I didn’t contact you if that’s why you’re here. When I’m in a lot of pain, I tend to only focus on the essentials and ignore anything that’s not work or food and I’ve been going through a bad flare up.” Aphrodi sighed and leaned back in the chair, vaguely realizing that it was probably time to eat. 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Fubuki’s sincere response caused Aphrodi to finally look up into those teal eyes. There was no pity there, just gentleness and a soft worry. 

“I’ll tell you since this prideful fool won’t,” Kidou interrupted as he walked out of the room with an armful of blankets. Dumping them on the couch, he began to pick up the clothes strewn around the room. “First of all let’s just help him get his apartment back in order. Fubuki can you load up the dishwasher?”

“Dishwasher??” Fubuki hadn’t even used one of those before, and the confusion was evident in his eyes. 

“Forgot that most places don’t have them, here, you pick up the stuff around the apartment and bring them to the laundry hamper in the bathroom, I’ll take care of the kitchen stuff. And Aphrodi-” Kidou caught Aphrodi just as he was about to get up from the chair and slink away to hide in his room. “-you stay put. I’m going to heat up something for you to eat.” 

Fubuki did as he was told, gathering up all the towels and clothes that were laying all over the place. Now that he knew about Aphrodi’s illness, so much more of the apartment layout made sense to him. Aphrodi had gotten up and was using the table and nearby chair to steady himself to go sit closer to the dining table. The reason that chair had been in the middle of his path...was probably because Aphrodi just wanted a reliable support while walking. Within one of the towels he found a melted ice pack that he brought back to the fridge. Kidou had heated up a store-bought bento and was talking quietly at Aphrodi while the weary child silently ate. 

Entering the bathroom, he saw a plastic chair placed on the side, along with a cushioned mat underneath. _Probably in case he falls_ , he observed as the dirty clothes in his hand were deposited into the half-full hamper. Kidou entered behind him, holding a few other stray articles of clothing fetched from inside Aphrodi’s rooms.

“Sorry you had to find out this way,” Kidou apologized as he began sorting through the clothes. “He was being stubborn and wouldn’t tell you. I was worried since he was pushing himself so much.”

“It’s not your fault, Kidou,” Fubuki decided to take care of the towels and blankets. At least these didn’t seem to be worth a fortune. “I had a feeling something was up but never asked about it...I should’ve, I can’t believe I made him walk so much. I feel awful.” 

“Don’t feel bad, he chose to go knowing full-well the consequences,” Kidou finished separating the colors and began bagging up the delicates. “I’ll drop you off after we put this load in, by the way. I know you still have to catch your train.”

_The train!_ Fubuki had completely forgotten during all of this, he still had to get home and tomorrow was a weekday too...a work day. He desperately wanted to stay around to ensure that Aphrodi was taken care of. 

“Aphrodi will be fine, if you want to check in on him just drop by this weekend. Oh and also he prefers calls, typing on a phone puts unnecessary stress on his joints. His upper half doesn’t have it as bad as his lower half but it’s not good in general.” Kidou was really trying to drop some helpful hints now that the air was clear. He saw a long coffee talk with Fubuki in the near future over how to handle Aphrodi. 

“Oh, thanks Kidou,” Fubuki hesitated, then asked what was on his mind. “Is it usually this bad for him?”

“No, this is the worst I’ve seen him in a while. I think something pushed him over the edge at the aquarium and then he got hit with a heavy workload so he hasn’t had time to fully recover. Usually he’s pretty good at taking care of himself and just needs a little help here and there.” 

The two of them finished loading the washing machine and headed back out to the living room. Aphrodi had finished eating and had absconded back to his office, too ashamed to face Fubuki after this display. 

“Should I go…?” Fubuki looked over at the closed doors, then saw Kidou shaking his head.

“No, he’s been through enough for the day, let’s just leave him alone. I’ll go drop you off and come back to make sure he’s alright.” 

“Wait is your work going to be ok?” Fubuki suddenly had the distinct realization that today was still a weekday.

“I’m fine, I’m just taking an extended lunch, it’s not like I do this everyday,” Kidou responded with a wry smile. “Let me take you back before it gets too late.” 


	6. heart

Fubuki hurried down the sidewalk, heart thumping in his chest as he rounded the corner to walk up towards the wrought-iron outer gate. To his relief, a familiar golden-haired figure was already sitting outside the gate reading yet another different book. Aphrodi looked up at the rapidly approaching footsteps and closed his book upon seeing who it was. 

“You’re early again,” Fubuki noted by way of greeting. Aphrodi looked better today. More color was in his cheeks and he didn’t have that underlying wariness like before. He seemed to have accepted the fact that Fubuki had already seen him at his worst and didn’t care anymore. (This had taken Kidou quite a bit of convincing for Aphrodi to not just straight up move back to Korea.) 

“Ah yeah, I always give myself a large amount of extra time in case my leg gives out on the way or something. Usually I arrive early, but worst case I get there right on time,” Aphrodi replied with a sigh. Pushing himself up, he waved off Fubuki’s offer to help and walked over to the gate and punched in the code. “I’m feeling a lot better, so you don’t have to worry.” 

Aphrodi was wearing long black sweatpants and a...familiar eel shirt. Fubuki wasn’t able to spot any hot pink tape under all of that, so he just had to assume Aphrodi was being truthful. Neither of them spoke while they headed up the elevator back to his apartment. Fubuki because he felt awkward, and Aphrodi was just unwilling to broach any topic after the last time they had met. Arriving inside, Fubuki noted that everything had been moved back to a proper spot. He felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that Aphrodi had probably done so to appear a bit more normal. Dragging around that furniture with those joints, he really shouldn’t have done so.

“As you can see, I’m doing fine. So you don’t need to stay for too long.” Aphrodi set a glass of water sharply down in front of Fubuki on the dining table. His unexpectedly cold attitude caught Fubuki off guard.

“Aphrodi...I’m just here to visit you and help out,” Fubuki steeled himself then slid carefully past the frosty princess who was suspiciously eyeing the tote bags that he was holding. Helping himself into the kitchen, Fubuki started to unload the ingredients he had brought. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” Aphrodi didn’t understand the significance of all of this, only that these were raw ingredients and he didn’t want them. Moving over to lean on the counter, he watched as Fubuki rolled up his sleeves and put on an apron.

“I’m going to cook you lunch, do you not want to eat my cooking?” Fubuki crossed his arms and stared across at Aphrodi, who suddenly looked extremely conflicted.

“No I- well, yes I want to eat your cooking but-.” On one hand, Aphrodi would eat just about anything Fubuki had touched. On the other hand he didn’t want Fubuki’s pity. The two hands were arm wrestling, and unfortunately the first one won out. He blamed his shit joints. 

“OK fine, I’ll help-” Aphrodi started to say, but was cut off by Fubuki waving a knife at him.

“No you won’t, you’re going to sit tight and eat my cooking. And that’s because I don’t trust you with my cooking.” 

“Hey! I can cook…” Giving in, Aphrodi decided that the only thing he could do was satisfy his curiosity and at least be comfortable. Using the nearby stepstool to get onto the counter chair, he watched as Fubuki began dicing up some onions. 

“What are you making?” Evidently Aphrodi couldn’t be quiet for any long period of time if he wasn’t sulking. Fubuki smiled, knowing that at least this was an indication that he was feeling better.

“Fried rice, and some vegetables. A well-rounded meal,” Fubuki emphasized the latter part. He had spent a while trying to decide what to do to help Aphrodi out. From his brief chat with Kidou on their way back to the train station, he had determined that Aphrodi tended to avoid cooking more complicated dishes that would have him moving around a lot. Something with more steps that could be made in bulk so he could save some for later would be perfect, hence the fried rice. 

Aphrodi watched as Fubuki continued preparing the ingredients. At first, it was just idle curiosity as to what was being used, as he wasn’t that much of a picky eater at this point in life. Eyes following those lithe fingers, his gaze wandered up until he found himself staring at Fubuki’s concentrated face, then danced down to the exposed collarbones. Somewhere between all of that, he realized that Fubuki was wearing an apron _and_ right in front of him while cooking, and all of this wasn’t a dream.

_How weird would it be if I suddenly took a photo?_ Aphrodi’s hands itched to fetch his phone out of his pocket. He was a model after all, maybe he could make up an excuse...he NEEDED a photo of this. Fubuki seemed deep in concentration, so he casually slipped out his phone and snapped a photo. Unfortunately the shutter sound rang true and Fubuki glanced up in surprise. Cursed Japanese phones. 

“Reference.” Aphrodi blurted out, then felt like smacking himself for saying so. Fubuki stared at him for a moment, then smiled and looked back down to continue cutting some carrots.

“For your translation work?” He asked in amusement, knowing full well why Aphrodi had taken that photo. 

“I…” caught in a lie, Aphrodi wasn’t sure what to say. “No, for modeling.” _Yeah that’d work._

“Actually I was going to ask...your modeling work, is it OK with your condition?” I’m sure it is since you do it often but still…” Fubuki was carefully testing the conversation waters, seeing how much he could learn before Aphrodi clammed up again. Evidently, Aphrodi was feeling a bit of guilt from taking a candid apron photo so he deigned to explain.

“Yeah, my manager knows and the crew somewhat knows to assist me, too. And I move shoots if I decide I’m not feeling well. There’s also certain types of clothing I won’t wear if they rub against a bad joint or...show some marks.” Aphrodi suddenly became evasive at the end; Fubuki wondered if it was the tape, but he’d been wearing shorts with bare legs the first time they’d reconnected. “Overall it’s just a side gig that I do for fun, and it gets me some nice free clothes sometimes.” _Of course he’d go for something that gives him free clothes._ Fubuki had been slightly shocked by the sheer amount of clothing Aphrodi owned from the small glimpse of laundry he’d seen. 

“Well that’s good, too bad translation doesn’t give you free clothes,” Fubuki replied as he checked the rice. 

“Pays the bills, though,” Aphrodi slumped down onto the counter, crossing his arms and resting his head on them but still keenly watching the cooking process. _Just like a cautious cat_ , Fubuki noted, tempted to toss over a shrimp to satiate the finicky feline. 

“What languages do you translate with?” 

“Korean, Japanese, and English, basically everything I already know but with some fancier words thrown in the mix.” Fubuki was almost done tossing the rice together. Fishing out some plates, he unceremoniously dumped a good amount of fried rice onto each plate and brought them over to the dining table. Aphrodi slunk off the counter and wandered around the kitchen, grabbing himself a cup of water and also utensils for both of them. He noted that there was still a good amount of fried rice in the pan, an impossible amount to eat in one sitting. 

“Thank you.” He at least still had his manners before beginning to eat. It was good, and he almost forgot about Fubuki as he heartily dug into the rice. Fubuki was relieved that his cooking was to Aphrodi’s taste while watching the boy eat and let down his guard at the same time. 

“If I had known you’d be wearing that shirt, I’d have worn mine too,” Fubuki noted while also starting on his plate. 

“Oh.” Aphrodi had actually thrown it on this morning, figuring if no one but Fubuki was going to see him it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear it. He had forgotten about how he’d had to sit in front of the outer gate to wait for his prince to show up, but by then it was too late to change. 

“Maybe next time…” he trailed off after realizing the implications of saying that and elected to stay quiet.

“Yeah,” Fubuki quickly agreed. “About the aquarium...did I push you too far?” This thought had been eating away at him in the last few days and he desperately needed closure. Aphrodi was silent again while munching on his rice, something Fubuki realized he did every time he was turning over possible answers in his head.

“Aphrodi, tell me the truth.” Fubuki’s firm voice made him glance up and hesitate a bit. He was going to give a vague answer, but he knew Fubuki wasn’t stupid. 

“You didn’t push me too far, since I was the one who chose to go.” Aphrodi clarified, “But yes, it was because I accidentally got headbutted by a child in the exact wrong way at an exhibit and that fucked the rest of my joints up. Then I got a ton of work, and then I completely forgot to respond to personal stuff and take care of myself like a normal human being. Sorry.”

 _Again with the sorry_ , Fubuki thought with irritation. It wasn’t as if Aphrodi had asked to be like this. The boy had it hard enough without feeling like he was inconveniencing everyone else’s life with his disability. Aphrodi was picking at the rest of his food again, a sign that he was starting to feel nervous. 

“Hopefully you still made some nice memories there,” Fubuki cautiously pushed ahead. “Next time I’ll try to pick something that’s less walking-intense.” A movie maybe, or a nice dining experience. 

“You don’t have to…” Aphrodi trailed off as he finished nibbling on the remaining greens. Going out to the aquarium once was enough, there wasn’t a need to accommodate him and his fantasies any further. Especially his fantasies coupled with his sobering reality. 

Fubuki took the plate from him, then went over and placed them in the dishwasher, having observed Kidou loading it last time. Dishwashers weren’t common here either, and he was starting to notice that Aphrodi most likely lived here because of the modern conveniences that made his life easier. Digging around the cupboards, he found some plastic food containers and began filling them up with the leftover rice and vegetables. 

“Here. This, along with the groceries Kidou brought, should last you until next weekend when I drop by again.” The last part was news to Aphrodi, who sat bolt upright upon hearing this.

“What? Next weekend? Why?” Red eyes narrowed in suspicion at Fubuki.

“To cook for you again, and check in on you,” Fubuki responded simply, as if this was just a normal fact of life.

“Why?! You don’t have to, I’m doing just fine.” Aphrodi tried to emphasize the last part. Fubuki coming by once was bad enough. To make this a regular occurrence? He might never recover from this.

“Because I care for you, Aphrodi.” Fubuki was exuding the patience of a saint trying to calm down a frantic angel. 

“Kidou cares for me and doesn’t come to cook and check in on me every week!” Aphrodi was grasping at straws now trying to explain to Fubuki why this was not Normal Friend Behavior.

“Aphrodi.” Fubuki took a deep breath and looked directly into his panicked red eyes. “I care for you more than as a friend. I like you, Aphrodi.” 

Aphrodi stood up in shock from his chair, pushing himself up using the table faster than Fubuki thought the injured boy could move. 

“What? No!” Aphrodi cried out as he tried to make sense of what Fubuki had just said.

Of all the responses Fubuki thought this confession would get, this was _not_ one of them. 

“No???” Flustered, Fubuki tried to figure out where he had gone wrong in the less than ten words he had just said. “What do you mean _no_?!”

“I-” Aphrodi wanted Fubuki to leave, right now. Grabbing the empty tote bag from the ground, he grabbed Fubuki with a surprising amount of force and started to try and push him out towards the door. “Just leave.”

“What, no! Oh my god.” Trying to delicately fight off a glass cannon was decidedly hard, and Fubuki now understood why Kidou had gone for a bear hug as he found himself also doing so. Aphrodi stiffened upon being enveloped like this. Fubuki was shorter than him and a distant part of his brain acknowledged that this was very cute. A closer part of his brain was telling him that he couldn’t fight him off without some major injuries. Seething, he tried to push against Fubuki who only held on tighter. 

“Aphrodi, explain. Or else I’m not letting go.” 

“I can’t explain like this!” Came Aphrodi’s indignant and muffled protest.

“Well then, promise me you won’t try to kick me out of your place if I let you go.” 

Aphrodi was quiet for a bit, and Fubuki swore he could feel the heat of anger radiating off of the silent beauty. 

“Fine. Let me go.” 

Fubuki carefully let down his arms, then herded Aphrodi over to the couch where he sat down on the coffee table across from him. Aphrodi was sitting extremely stiffly: back straight, and looking just like a furious greek statue carved out of marble. Fubuki waited patiently for an explanation, propping his chin on his hands and gazing upwards at him. If this was a waiting game, he would win it. 

Aphrodi was trying to piece together the scattered thoughts in his head. Fubuki, liking him?! Again?! After seeing such a shameful display of living like this with all these problems?! He had fantasized about getting back together with Fubuki again, but not like _this._

“I don’t want you to say you like me just to take care of me.” Aphrodi carefully tried to structure his thoughts into coherent complaints. 

“Why?” Fubuki was confused at this, wasn’t this what was normal? He cared for Aphrodi and wanted to make sure he was alright, what was wrong with that?

“Because.” Aphrodi paused at this, struggling with a deep fear in his heart, a reason why he hadn’t dated since his illness had set in. “I don’t want you to be doing it out of pity for me.” 

Fubuki was shocked at this, having never felt motivated to do anything for Aphrodi out of pity. He started to open his mouth and quickly refute this claim only to stop upon seeing the fear inside those crimson eyes. This wasn’t just a silly little fear, it was an overarching one in Aphrodi’s life, one that held him back from stepping too far outside his usual safe lifestyle. 

“Aphrodi.” Fubuki straightened his back and then reached over to grasp his hand. So cold, so scared. “Aphrodi I love you because of who you are. Your illness doesn’t define you, even if it is a part of you that I wholly accept. I fell back in love with you before I knew about your illness, and I only wish I had known of it earlier so we could have spent our time together in a way that was also fully enjoyable to you.” Fubuki tried to put the entire weight of his feelings into this statement, hoping his sincerity would reach Aphrodi’s closed-off heart. _It’s not out of pity_ , he wanted to say, but hoped that Aphrodi would understand the simple truth from his words. 

Glancing up, he was startled by tears pooling in those red eyes. Assuming the worst, Fubuki nervously eased away his hand, ready to get on his knees and apologize at any second. 

“Wait,” Aphrodi reached up and wiped away his tears, trying to come to terms with what Fubuki had just said. _Do you mean that?_ Was what he wanted to ask, but he already knew Fubuki as a person. Fubuki wouldn’t lie about such things. 

“If you don’t feel the same, I understand,” Fubuki cautiously offered Aphrodi a way out. 

“No!” Aphrodi protested, surprised at how easy Fubuki would give up on him. Fubuki was getting really tired of hearing “no” today. 

“I mean, yes, I feel the same…sorry this is a lot right now.” Hearing this, Fubuki got up from the coffee table and then sat down next to Aphrodi, pulling him close in a warm embrace. 

“Does this bother you or your joints?” He asked carefully, ready to let go at any moment.

“No, but it bothers my heart,” came a weak reply which made him smile. Aphrodi getting his sass back definitely meant that he was feeling better. Reaching up to play with the ends of Aphrodi’s ponytail, Fubuki was glad that he’d be around when the entire head of hair was golden and glowing again. 

\---

Kidou sat at a table in the coffee shop, silently congratulating his past self for successfully predicting the future. Fubuki was up at the counter, trying to order the most normal drink he could find. Quickly receiving the drink at the end of the counter, Fubuki turned around and came over to sit down at the table. 

“Kidou, thanks for all your help,” Fubuki tossed the kindhearted caped friend a grateful smile. Cape even on a work day, maybe this was just Kidou’s formal wear.

“No worries, it actually helps me out now that you’re watching out for him, too.” Kidou had heard most of the story from Fubuki over the phone, and had agreed to meet with him the next weekday he’d show back up in the city to go over how to best handle Aphrodi. Fubuki had diligently brought along a small notebook, keen to take down some notes.

“I’m really grateful to you that you were taking care of him for so long…” Fubuki fretted a bit, then decided to dive right in. “I was just wondering how I could help him out, but also make it so it’s not like I’m too overbearing or overprotective.”

“Well that’s easy, just listen to him,” Kidou noticed the unsure look on Fubuki’s face. “If it’s something that he needs help in, he’ll just tell you. He’s surprisingly whiny at times if you get him to be comfortable around you. Which I’m sure he’s already well on his way to calling you at 2AM to cry.” 

“He does that?”

“Sometimes. He did once back in university but that was honestly a really bad day so I don’t blame him.”

“University, he said it started around then?” Fubuki knew that Kidou had been around during that change, but Aphrodi hadn’t divulged much of his past in the past two weekends. It had been mostly idle chatter and some gentle prodding on Fubuki’s part to try and see what Aphrodi could handle both physically and mentally. Aphrodi was still a bit skittish around him, but at least the furniture was back to its usual place now. 

“Yeah, we were only in general classes together, but we’d still talk every once in a while since we were in the same dorm. He was fine until his second year when I think the illness first reared its head and then never left. That was about when he cut his hair to his shoulders and switched majors to graduate early.” 

“Graduate early!” More and more of these things were a surprise to Fubuki. It made sense for Aphrodi to do so, but it wasn’t something that he had thought of. Thinking over what Kidou had told him, he decided to try another direction.

“Then what do you do to help him out? I know you get him groceries and give him a ride sometimes…” _And a whole host of other things, including making sure he’s alive_ , Fubuki silently finished the thought. 

“Yeah, unfortunately my conscience won’t let me just leave him to his own devices.” Kidou sipped at his coffee while remembering the many breakdowns Aphrodi had had with him trying to listen and help in the dorm hallway. 

“But yes, there are a few things. I help drive him to the grocery store, it’s hard for him to carry heavy bags and the like around. Sometimes I just drop by to check in on him if he hasn’t gotten groceries with me for a while, like a month or so. Heavy things are a problem, and places that are farther away are also a problem. He doesn’t like taking public transport because he often can’t find a seat, and standing on a moving vehicle is difficult for him.”

“No priority seating?” Fubuki was confused at this, knowing that there was an easy solution there.

“Aphrodi doesn’t look injured or sick, does he? He told me he doesn’t like dealing with the judgmental glares. I think that’s part of why he’s such a homebody now.” 

“Oh I see…” That was something he hadn’t thought of and had also been guilty of the same mindset. From an outside point of view, Aphrodi looked completely fine. No wonder he had been trying to act normal for so long. Jotting down some notes, he leaned in to see what else he could learn from Kidou in this short afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sucks to not be able to use the priority seat, man! Once had to hug my friend while we were on a bus because I couldn't ask for a seat without being judged and my joints were about to give out with the swaying bus movement.


	7. lip

Blinking at the harsh fluorescent lights after leaving the inside of the movie theatre, Fubuki glanced back to see Aphrodi rubbing his eyes and looking just as bothered at the sudden change in brightness. 

“That was nice, wasn’t it?” He had been unsure when deciding on a movie, so they had ended up picking it together. He’d been surprised when Aphrodi had also been interested in the recent dragon movie. Both of them had watched the first movie, so a sequel was a perfect choice.

“Yeah, I liked the white dragon a lot. She was so pretty and shiny.” Aphrodi’s elegance evidently didn’t extend to his use of descriptors. Fubuki wandered over to the merchandise booth on the side, seeing if there was anything good to pick up pertaining to the movie. Aphrodi noticed the shirt before Fubuki did, and had to hold back from giggling a bit when Fubuki reached over and picked it up. 

“Can’t you buy clothes at a normal clothing store?” Aphrodi teased while sidling up next to Fubuki to get a better view of the shirt. Acceptable this time, even quite cool of a design if he was being honest. 

“I don’t go normal clothes shopping,” Fubuki replied, blushing a bit at being caught red-handed like this. “It’s too much hassle.” 

“Hope you won’t say that when you go clothes shopping with me,” Aphrodi perched his chin on Fubuki’s shoulder, a perfect view for seeing that red blush creep up his boyfriend’s neck. 

“Stop taking advantage of your height.” Fubuki swatted him off, but went ahead and purchased two t-shirts. He turned around and handed one to a confused Aphrodi.

“So we can match,” he clarified, waiting for his perturbed boyfriend to get the hint. He’d worn the eel shirt today, but Aphrodi had opted for a “movie-going outfit” citing that unfortunately he wasn’t in the dark movie theatre the whole time. He wasn’t sure if this shirt was Aphrodi’s taste but he had to try.

“Fubuki…” Aphrodi took the shirt, then looked at the eel shirt with a conflicted look in his eyes. “Let’s go clothes shopping next time and _I’ll_ pick stuff that matches, OK?” Stricken, Fubuki could only nod in agreement and take back the extra shirt to carry. He’d make sure to leave it behind at Aphrodi’s when he left for the week. 

Holding open the door for Aphrodi, they rode the elevator down while gazing out through the glass walls. Fubuki was secretly glad he had scouted ahead to make sure there wasn’t an excess of stairs or walking involved here. This shopping mall was conveniently located near Aphrodi’s apartment and had a movie theatre on the top floor. Aphrodi wasn’t interested in shopping today (a rare mood), having just bought a few new things online this week that he had proudly showed Fubuki earlier. Exiting the mall, they headed down along the river walkway to return to his apartment. 

Fubuki was careful in controlling his pace, and reached over to grasp Aphrodi’s loosely swinging hand. Having been in the middle of movie discussion, Aphrodi tensed up in surprise, but didn’t pull away. 

“You know, you can use me as a support,” Fubuki observed with amusement. Aphrodi shot him a glare, but squeezed his hand in acknowledgement.

“I guess, since you’re shorter than me, that’s the perfect role for you.” 

“Hey now! That’s just low.” 

“I’m the one who’s higher, so you can’t say that.” Aphrodi tossed a grin behind his shoulder, then pulled Fubuki forward to walk next to him. “At least keep up!” 

The sky was clear and the weather proved to be nice and breezy. Shouts and cries came from below, drawing Fubuki’s attention and causing him to lean over to see what was happening. A grass field stretched next to the river, marked into a soccer field. Kids were playing a soccer game in it, complete with lots of yelling and acting out hissatsus. Watching curiously, Fubuki noticed a familiar spinning motion and a distant cry of “Fire Tornado!”. Glancing at Aphrodi, he started to comment on it, then noticed a melancholy look in those red eyes watching the game below. He began to walk forward again when a yell came from below, combined with several cries of “Watch out!”. 

Aphrodi reacted before he could, easily stepping forward and catching the stray ball with his hands and pulling it into his chest. 

“Mister!” The kids had run forward to the side of the grassy river bank, trying to see who had caught their ball.

“Can you kick it down to us?” 

Aphrodi hesitated, then handed the ball over to Fubuki, patting it gently before fully letting go. 

“There you go, mister ex-pro soccer league player,” he teased before stepping back to give him some space. Fubuki glanced over with worry, but Aphrodi had already squatted down to call back down to the kids. 

“Mister handsome here will kick it down for you!” 

“Hey! Don’t teach children things like that!” Fubuki tossed the ball in the air, then sent it in a careful arc shot down towards the waiting kids. Screaming in delight, they chased after the ball, calling back cries of thanks while dispersing back to the field. 

Aphrodi had gotten back up and was walking off again, but Fubuki could tell that something was off by how quiet he had become. Catching hold of the stray hand again, he waited to hear what was on Aphrodi’s mind.

Nothing was said until they reached his apartment, where Fubuki enveloped Aphrodi with a hug from behind after the apartment door closed.

“What’s this for?” Aphrodi lightly asked as he reached up to pat Fubuki’s hair. “The movie too emotional for you?”

“Silly,” Fubuki let go as Aphrodi turned around to look at him. “Finally, you’re looking at me again.” 

“Ah.” Caught in a trap, unable to fly away this time. “Don’t worry about me, it’s nothing serious. My joints feel fine.”

“Matters of the heart are serious too, and we’re partners now. Tell me, Aphrodi.” 

Aphrodi hesitated, struggling internally upon how to put his feelings into words. 

“It’s just...hard sometimes, seeing kids running and playing soccer without a care in the world. Since I can’t even run …” It hurt to see, to watch sometimes, dredging up the happy carefree memories of the past were unreachable now. “I loved soccer, and now I can’t play anymore.” 

“You still love soccer,” Fubuki gently corrected his tormented lover. 

“I do but it hurts, Fubuki, I sometimes wish I could forget it all, that there was even the possibility to do all that.” Aphrodi couldn’t count the number of nights he had laid awake in pain, cursing the choices that had led him to that moment. If he had just never played soccer, never drank the Aqua of the Gods. Even though it was genetic it would’ve set in later on in life. He would’ve been able to live without these pains and worries for even longer. 

“Soccer is a part of you, Aphrodi, without it we would’ve never met. You also would’ve never met all these good friends and made all of these memories together.” Fubuki hugged him tight again, this time from the front. Gently rubbing Aphrodi’s back, he thought about how hard it must’ve been for him to coach. 

“I’m not a god, not even an angel anymore, just a human with an illness that can’t be cured,” came Aphrodi’s bitter complaint. Fubuki pulled back, then gently kissed him on the lips. 

“You’re still my guardian angel,” he reached up and pulled aside Aphrodi’s long middle bang, then kissed his forehead. He would never forget what Aphrodi did for him, how he’d been the one to pull him out of the darkness that haunted him back then. Even if he’d never see those wings again, he knew they would always be there. Feeling that Aphrodi needed a bit of time alone to deal with his emotions, he let go to head over to the kitchen.

“I’ll get dinner started, but the movie ran long so I won’t be able to eat with you in time. I still have to catch the train,” Fubuki’s apologetic tone caused Aphrodi to snap out of his downcast mood, suddenly remembering what he had decided on over the week.

“Actually, Fubuki,” Aphrodi walked over to the kitchen counter to watch him cook. 

“Hm?”

“If you’d like...starting next weekend, you can stay over for the night. Unless you have other things you like to do on Sunday of course. But I was thinking the ticket is so expensive and the train ride is so long, if you’d like to spend more time here…” He also wanted to see Fubuki more often, but was unable to visit as easily because he’d have to navigate all the different trains to get to him. A prospect that was daunting to do alone.

Fubuki nearly cut himself while trying to prepare the pork upon hearing this. He’d been taking it slow since he wanted to show Aphrodi that he was willing to accommodate his pace. Jumping at the opportunity, he smiled up at a slightly worried Aphrodi.

“Of course I don’t mind, I’d love to see you more often.” 

\---

Fubuki sat on the couch, waiting for Aphrodi to emerge from inside his office. Apparently some sort of translation work had gotten a rush order or something. Fubuki hadn’t caught half of the explanation but had just waved at him to go to his office. It wasn’t as if he was leaving tonight. Smiling to himself at that thought, he glanced around the room noting how empty some parts of it were. A stray pink yoga mat lay on the side with some other items, Aphrodi had waved at it saying it was for his physical therapy routine and to ignore it. Stacks of books also lay around the room and Fubuki moved to one to see what exactly Aphrodi might be reading all the time. Running his finger along the spines he realized that they were all in different languages. Some Japanese, some Korean, and of course, English. That made sense, considering his line of work but even the topics and covers all seemed different. Flipping through one in Japanese, he recognized it as a recent popular fantasy novel. Settling back into the couch, he began to read. 

“Do you like that book?” 

Fubuki looked up in surprise to see Aphrodi carrying a pillow and dumping it over the back of the couch. He’d been so engrossed in the story he hadn’t heard Aphrodi come out of his office at all.

“Oh, it’s pretty interesting, I like the plot so far…but I’m not really an avid reader like you so maybe my taste is just mainstream.” He closed the book and watched as Aphrodi carefully settled onto the couch, adjusting the pillow to best cushion his sensitive back.

“It’s a nice story. You can borrow the book if you’d like, in whichever language you’d like,” Aphrodi reached over and picked up two other slim books with very different covers. “I was the translator and they gifted me copies.”

“Oh wow! This is all your work?” Fubuki sorely regretted not really paying attention during English class now. The only thing he could really read was [The]. 

“Mhm, I know that story so well now I could probably recite it to you,” Aphrodi joked as he placed the books back onto the coffee table. 

“You’re always reading books, is it for your work?” Thinking back, Aphrodi had always had a book in hand whenever they met up. “Or more as a wallet?” One day Aphrodi was going to show up with a hollowed out book and he would be none the wiser. A snort of laughter from the side let him know that at least the man was self aware.

“Both, and it’s something nice to pass the time with. I don’t like scrolling around on my phone very much as it bothers my back. Although my prince never really keeps me waiting,” Aphrodi winked at Fubuki, then leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. _Ah, he’s in a good mood this weekend_ , Fubuki happily thought. 

Discussion moved onto the different genres he tended to translate in. Aphrodi was in the midst of complaining about how being multilingual just meant he sucked at every language when a series of chimes came from his phone. 

“Ah shoot, it’s time for physical therapy,” Aphrodi shot Fubuki an apologetic glance then got up and stretched. “It’s a good time for you to take a shower too, since this will take me a while.” 

“I don’t mind waiting,” Fubuki replied, then realized how weird of a reply that was. _Waiting for what? Showering together?!_ “No I meant-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Aphrodi was trying unsuccessfully to hide the grin on his face. “Just go along, I’m not used to having people around when I do it anyways.” Getting the hint, Fubuki got up and went over to his bag where he rummaged around then pulled out his toiletries and pajamas. Aphrodi quickly gave him a tour of the bathroom, and pointed out things that could be moved but had to be set back into place. A roll of familiar pink tape was on the bathroom shelf, catching his eye. 

“Is there a reason why this tape is pink? I saw that they also have other colors like...skin tone.” Aphrodi looked over in surprise at this comment.

“How did you know that?” _Had Fubuki been injured before, too?_

“I uh...did some research to see how I could maybe help you and saw it on a website.”

“Pink was on sale so I got it. The color doesn’t really matter for me since I like to cover it up when I go out to avoid...looks.” 

“I think it looks good on you, it’s bold,” Fubuki’s eyes had lingered on the red tape for a bit when scrolling through the website, thinking about how they’d compliment his lover’s eyes. 

“Well thank you, my prince,” There was a twinkle in his eye, appreciative that Fubuki had at least tried to look into things. “Anyways, I’ll leave you to it.” Closing the bathroom door behind him, he suddenly remembered something else important.

“Oh the towels, use the ones set on the back of the toilet!” He called through the closed door. 

“Got it!” The sound of running water started up within. Content that Fubuki was busying himself with showering, he went to begin his therapy routine. 

Time passed quickly when he unfocused and went through the exercises. He’d been doing these for years, after all. It was still easier to stretch without someone watching him, otherwise he’d tense up and get nervous. Letting his mind wander, he recalled the memories he had made today. Fubuki had come on the early train, they’d gone shopping together for clothes and luckily found something that wasn’t too “flashy” for Fubuki’s taste to wear together. Now he had three matching tops with Fubuki, and hopefully more to come. Maybe to the point that he could get rid of the first two matching tops. That lunch cafe had been nice, too. Fubuki had found it online and they hadn’t had to wait since he’d already made a reservation. His lover was such a perfect prince...closing his eyes, he stretched forward to try and loosen his back. 

“Aphrodi, I’m done.” Eyes snapping open, he rolled over onto his side to see Fubuki peeking over the edge of the couch. Fubuki had remembered what Kidou had said about Aphrodi not liking surprises and had deigned to announce himself before Aphrodi startled himself.

“Ah good timing, I’m almost done.” His muscles were tense now, though. Maybe he’d just do extra tomorrow to make up for it…. Working through some simpler stretches, he tried to calm himself down to at least make them effective. Finishing up, he snuck in a kiss with Fubuki before disappearing into the bathroom. A nonplussed Fubuki was left in the living room, unsure of where to go since he hadn’t been invited into the other rooms yet. Picking the book back up, he continued reading where he had left off when a sudden crash from inside the bathroom caused him to jolt up and throw aside the book.

“Aphrodi?!” Hurrying to the door, he panicked and opened it, worried that Aphrodi had fallen inside.

“Ah! Oh my god I’m alright-- out! Get out!” Aphrodi was only half dressed with boxers on. It seemed as if he had accidentally knocked off a shampoo bottle that had ricocheted off into the tile bathtub. Glancing up at Aphrodi’s panicked face, he noted that the man's hair was wet and clinging to his cheeks and shoulders and...scars? Thin scars crisscrossed his back, extending from his spine up to his shoulder blades. Unable to look away, he reached over and lightly touched one of the marks. 

“FUBUKI! SHIROU!” Aphrodi pushed him with more force than he thought was packed into that thin body and ran off into his bedroom. The door slam brought Fubuki back to his senses and he realized how much he had just fucked up. 

“Wait, Aphrodi! Aphrodi! I’m sorry! I was worried you’d fallen!” Pleading his case on the other side of the door, he couldn’t get the image of a freshly showered Aphrodi out of his mind. 

“Aphrodi please! Aphrodi...I love you. I’m going to wait out here until you’re ready. Sorry.” Sitting down with his back against the door, Fubuki tried to beat some repentant thoughts and phrases into his head while desperately hoping Aphrodi would give him another chance.

Aphrodi was huddled on his bed, blankets wrapped around him as he shook from his nerves. He hadn’t wanted Fubuki to see that yet...those scars on his back that he hid at any point he could. That was the one last thing he’d wanted to hide. He knew that they’d come up sooner or later but this...this was not the ideal circumstance he had wanted. But truthfully, there was no ideal circumstance to tell someone that you now had scars all over your back. Hearing Fubuki’s pleading cries from the other side of the door, a pang of guilt stabbed his heart. He was the one holding back the entire relationship, always too afraid to step forward for fear of rejection. Rubbing his arms to try and get his hands to stop shaking, he took a deep breath and wrapped his blankets around his shoulders to go open the door.

Fubuki whirled around upon hearing the click of the door opening. Cautiously scooting to face the door, he decided that maybe staying on his knees was the most repentant action he could take right now. Staring at Aphrodi’s feet, he distracted himself with the fact that Aphrodi’s toenails had a light coat of sheer pink nail polish on them.

Squatting down so he was now at the same level as Fubuki, Aphrodi scratched his head then glanced to the side trying to muster up his courage to speak. 

“Fubuki...sorry, I just...wasn’t expecting that and reacted badly.” He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders, embarrassed at the shameful display he had put on earlier. 

“Don’t apologize, I’m the one who rushed in without asking.” Fubuki glanced up, worried, and saw that Aphrodi was nervously picking at his hair. Gently reaching up, he pat the crown of golden hair, noting that it was still damp from before and growing colder.

“Let me get you a towel to dry your hair, it’s not good for you to be cold, right?” Saying as such, he got up and went over to the bathroom to fetch a towel, righting the various objects that had been knocked over earlier as well. Aphrodi was still sitting in the same spot in the open doorway when he got back. Reaching over to begin gently drying his hair with the towel, he glanced behind the morose figure and got his first glimpse of the bedroom. Most of the furniture was simple and black and seemed to all come from the same matching set. Bookshelves lined the walls, along with a large sprawling wardrobe on the side that was half open. Two clothing racks were present within, too. One that seemed to be jam-packed with clothes and another that had sparse clothing hanging and draped over it.

Satisfied with his hair drying progress, he draped the towel over Aphrodi’s head and then leaned in to test the waters with a soft kiss on the lips. Aphrodi didn’t kick him off, so that was a good sign, but he still hadn’t spoken since his initial statement. 

“It’s getting late, you should change and then we can sleep,” Fubuki suggested as he wondered where he’d be sleeping. The yoga mat was looking like a very likely option right now. 

“Yeah...here.” Aphrodi got up and then grabbed Fubuki’s sleeve, dragging his puzzled boyfriend into the bedroom then waving him at the bed. “Make yourself comfortable...I’m going to change.” Aphrodi dropped the blanket around his body and went to go dig around in his closet for some clothes. Fubuki sat down with a proper amount of force onto the bed only for him to discover that it was a very hard wooden platform bed. Unfortunately, this realization caused him to wheeze in surprise upon impact at the same moment Aphrodi turned his back to Fubuki again. 

“Wait, wait it’s not you! Well it is you, you look very nice. But it’s your bed....I wasn’t expecting it to be so hard…” Fubuki winced as he rubbed his butt, trying to dissipate some of the pain. Despite there being a few layers of comforters on top of it he had still sat down as if it was a soft mattress, not a piece of hardwood.

A snort of laughter caused him to look up. Aphrodi had managed to put on some pajama pants during this time, but was still topless and was also laughing his ass off at Fubuki. 

“I should’ve warned you...oh my god,” he came over and carefully sat down next to Fubuki with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “I didn’t think you’d just launch yourself onto the bed.”

“It’s the logical thing to do!” Fubuki complained at the same rate his butt was aching. He was starting to wish that the yoga mat was an actual option now that he knew how hard this bed was. 

“I sleep on a hard bed because it’s better on my back,” Aphrodi noted with amusement. He reached up and rubbed his shoulder, knowing the scars that were there. 

“About these scars...I’ve never really shown them to anyone. They were during treatment for my illness and the tape left marks up here since it was a different brand that was for more drastic use. Even when I model I don’t allow anything that exposes my shoulders or is backless.”

Fubuki kept his hands to himself this time, but desperately wanted to reach out and touch them again.

“I think they look like wings,” he softly remarked. Aphrodi paused, then got back up and went to put on a shirt. Fubuki cast over a tentative glance and saw a blush spreading on those pale shoulders. Settling into the bed, he smiled to himself, happy to have eased one of Aphrodi’s fears. 

Finishing up some final stretches before joining Fubuki in bed, Aphrodi saw that those lidded eyes were droopier than usual. 

“Not a night owl, huh?” He teased as he clambered onto the tough bed. Even on such an uncomfortable surface, Fubuki was quickly dozing off. 

“No, I’m not like you, living in a different timezone,” came the sleepy reply. Laughing, Aphrodi bent over and gave him a kiss on the forehead, then reached over to turn off the lights. Lying down, he carefully wrapped himself around Fubuki who stiffened in surprise.

“Won’t this be bad for your joints?” came a concerned voice in the dark.

“Normally I sleep hugging a pillow, but I think my boyfriend will work this time.” Fubuki blushed upon hearing this, glad that it was dark in the room. Resolving not to move an inch while sleeping, he tried vainly to ignore the gentle breath next to him that soon eased into a steady rhythm, showing that the owner had already fallen asleep. Mind wandering through fragmented memories from the busy day, Fubuki eventually drifted off to sleep as well. 


	8. bone

Aphrodi lounged on the floor, trying to reset a stray hip joint while musing over his weekend plans. Rubbing his knee, he thought back to the last few months. With Fubuki around he’d been more willing to try new things and experiences. Going to places he normally wouldn’t such as farther exhibitions or malls. Fubuki now slept over every weekend, but that was the extent of what happened in bed. Aphrodi hadn’t missed the fleeting hungry looks in those eyes and how Fubuki would always stiffen up whenever he showed too much skin. His prince would definitely keep his hands off in fear of injuring him, but Aphrodi really was starting to reach his limit. 

Getting up off the floor, he went to check the paper calendar on the dining table. He traced his finger along the dates, and a red date stood out to him from a square box. Smiling to himself, he tapped it then went back to his office in better spirits.

Fubuki was finding it hard to focus on the train ride to Aphrodi’s as he was mulling over the news he had received last week. He’d been entertaining moving in with Aphrodi to better be with him but it was impossible due to his job location. Showing up at Hiroto’s office was a special contract and sadly not the norm. In the end, he was still a simple office worker. But with this new offer, it might be a reality…how the princess might react was an unknown, though. He liked to think that Aphrodi was fully comfortable with him now, but that fool had always been brash, so walking around in just boxers might not be an indication of anything. Rubbing his face and trying to rid that image from his mind, he beat the unwanted thoughts of what he wanted to do to Aphrodi into the back of his mind with a mental broom. If he hurt Aphrodi...he’d never be able to forgive himself, already knowing what the boy lived with day to day. 

Pulling a book out of his bag, he began reading to pass the rest of his time. Aphrodi had started dumping books on him under the guise of “recommendations” and sandwiched between them would be a ton of scrawled translation notes and sometimes a stray “LOVE YOU!” to keep him on his toes. The genres varied wildly, but luckily this one was fantasy fiction again so it was easier for him to fall into. Easing into the book, Fubuki swore he’d only read a few pages before his stop arrived. He hurried onto the platform after grabbing his bag, then began walking the familiar route to Aphrodi’s apartment.

Stairs, elevator, slope, he subconsciously categorized everything on how much trouble they’d give Aphrodi if he were to come along this route despite walking it dozens of times already. Aphrodi was self conscious about having a limp at times, so he had avoided walking this route with Fubuki the first few times they’d met up. Avoidant to the point that he’d purposely taken a long way around to walk alone. 

Stopping at a bakery halfway, he bought a few cream puffs that Aphrodi loved. He had evidently developed a sweet tooth in these ten years and the only thing stopping him from eating cake all day was how far the bakery was from his apartment. Pulling his wallet out to pay, his hands brushed against the key fob in his pocket that he had gotten from Kidou a few months earlier. Kidou had seemed so relieved that someone was finally taking care of Aphrodi and had gladly relinquished the keys. The kind hearted man had still offered to lend a hand (or a car ride) when needed, though. 

The sun was setting by the time he left the bakery to finish the rest of the walk, even though he hadn't been in for too long. Feeling the cold wind on his neck, he hoped that Aphrodi hadn’t forgotten to close the kitchen window. A few more minutes of walking, and then he was punching in the key code and heading up the elevator. Hands full with a bag of sweets, he knocked on the door before swiping his fob and entering.

“Aphrodi! I’m here!” Looking around the room, he spotted his lover lying facedown on the yoga mat. Walking past the concerning image that was the norm by now, he deposited the cream puffs on the messy dining table. 

“You brought cream puffs!” Aphrodi had turned himself over in excitement. Joints came secondary to sweets enjoyment. Pushing himself off the floor, he came over to dig through the different flavor options. 

“They had a new seasonal flavor so I got it, it’s black sesame.” Fubuki put his bag down on the side then came over to join him. Slipping an arm around that thin waist, he only managed to get a kiss on the cheek because Aphrodi was already cramming a cream puff in his mouth. 

“How are you feeling?” Fubuki gently rubbed his back, hoping to ease any aches and pains present. 

“Very fine!” It seemed true enough with how bouncy Aphrodi was acting. His hair was glossy and soft, and the room was in decent disorder. Satisfied, Fubuki began to let go to clean up but was stopped by Aphrodi shoving a half-bitten cream puff into his hands.

“I think the flavor is sort of weird, you try it and tell me.” 

“Alright, my princess,” he replied with amusement as he bit into it. Aphrodi sat down in a stray chair and looked up at him, waiting for a statement.

“It’s fine? I guess the sesame taste is sort of strong?” He couldn’t remember if Aphrodi disliked sesame or not.

“Mmm I want the vanilla one,” Holding out an expectant hand, piercing red eyes gazed up at him. Giving in to such a demanding lover, Fubuki fished out a vanilla puff and watched Aphrodi munch on it in contentment. He always had to buy extra vanilla cream puffs to satiate this sweets demon. Finishing off the perfectly fine sesame cream puff, he busied himself with tying up some housework loose ends. There wasn’t much to take care of, proving that Aphrodi really was doing fine this week. He hadn’t come across a situation as bad as the first time since, and Fubuki was glad that was an anomaly. 

“How was your week?” A familiar opening line, as the two of them didn’t text often. Dinnertime was the time to catch up with each other. Aphrodi was dealing with the same usual complaints of translation work, but had just finished a photoshoot session and had come back with a new shirt for Fubuki. 

“I’ll show you it later, it’s in your drawer. It’s a nice sailor style shirt, too bad none of your schools ever had that sort of uniform,” Aphrodi teased as he ate.

“If going clothes shopping with you means that I get a bit of a say in what clothes I get, I’d rather do that.” Fubuki replied with a sigh. Aphrodi had stopped getting as many clothes for himself but seemed to find that getting clothes for Fubuki gave him the same rush of serotonin he desired. Fubuki barely needed to bring anything to stay over anymore, having accumulated a good amount of everything at Aphrodi’s. 

“That’s fine, too, but these are free so it’s all good. They’re also unique! One of a kind samples.” Aphrodi tried to persuade his unfashionable lover. If there was one thing he was going to do, it was to make Fubuki actually dress hot. A nice ass couldn’t hide under khakis forever. 

“Fine, fine.” Fubuki knew better than to argue, he’d deal with whatever Aphrodi had brought back later. Some of the clothes were so tight…. He still felt comfier in baggier clothes, but whatever made Aphrodi happy and more willing to go out in public with him was fine. 

“Fubuki, when are you leaving this week?” An unexpected question. Looking across the table in confusion, Fubuki glanced at the nearby calendar then saw the reason for the question. 

“Monday,” He responded with a smile. A rare long weekend, he’d be able to spend three nights here instead of the usual two. They hadn’t had much planned for this weekend either, but seeing that it was a three day weekend he should’ve thought of something sooner.

“That’s great.” Aphrodi’s self-satisfied smile caused Fubuki to feel a hint of suspicion. Shaking off uneasy feelings, he went back to eating dinner and filling in Aphrodi about his week, but not without leaving out a few small details he wasn’t quite sure of yet. 

\---

Fubuki sat on the bed, looking through some of the new books Aphrodi had gotten recently to pick out for his train ride back. Leaning back, he eased into the blankets to lie on the hard bed. To be honest, he was starting to think that his bed back at home was too soft. The hardwood really was nice even if it took a period to get used to. Letting his back relax onto the familiar surface, he was dozing off when the door opened with a harsh gust of wind.

“Aphrodi?” Rubbing his eyes, he got up to see if the windows were closed before falling straight off the bed when his brain registered what was in front of him. Glancing up to make sure he wasn’t just imagining things, he took in the fever dream image. Aphrodi really was wearing the skimpiest outfit he’d ever seen.

 _His shoulders are exposed!_ The best observation his feeble brain could come up with in the heat of the moment. 

“Aphrodi what are you wearing?! Aren’t you cold?!” _Please cover up_ , Fubuki wanted to beg him, otherwise he’d sleep out on the yoga mat tonight. His heart wouldn’t be able to take this temptation. Aphrodi smiled slyly, then picked at the thin black lace strap of the slightly sheer top. 

“Just some lingerie, I got some a while back when they asked me if I’d like to do a shoot in them. I turned them down of course, but got to keep the samples.” Letting his hand trail down to rest lightly on his hip, he cast a provoking glance at a frazzled Fubuki. “I think it shows off my body quite nicely. What do you think?” 

Fubuki was trying very hard not to look up top, but the shorts, oh god they were so short. And so _tight_. 

“Aphrodi….” his voice was strangled as he decided to just cover his eyes with his hands and subtly turn his body away. “Please change out of that.” Warm fingers gripped his wrists and pulled his hands away from his face. Aphrodi leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, then leaned down to look him directly in the eye.

“Are you not interested?” A tone of amusement, but those red eyes were full of seriousness. 

“I…am...but your body, if I make it worse!” 

“I’ll be fine, I trust you. And I love you,” Aphrodi gently replied, knowing that this was the reason why Fubuki had been holding back the whole time. Kissing his wrist, Aphrodi gazed over at him. 

“I don’t think…” Fubuki weakly started to protest, the struggle within him showing clearly through his teal eyes.

“I like it when you don’t think,” Aphrodi slyly replied. Fubuki’s self control snapped. 

“If it hurts, at any moment, no matter what, you have to tell me and I will stop.” Fubuki laid down the ground rules. He knew that Aphrodi tended to push himself at times, but this was something he couldn’t let this fool get ahead of himself with.

“Of course my prince,” Aphrodi replied with a smile, then pushed him down onto the bed.

\---

Aphrodi woke up feeling very ravished and refreshed. Last night had been quite a tumble in the sheets and also had him thinking that elbows slamming onto hardwood wasn’t the best idea. Turning to his side, he noticed that bright sunlight was already streaming in through the cracks in the curtains. Both of them had slept in far past their usual wake up time, but the gentle light let him see Fubuki’s sleeping face for once. Normally by the time he woke up, Fubuki was already out of bed and cooking breakfast. His body rose and fell in sync with deep breaths, and the angle of the pillow caused his breath to ruffle his long silver side bangs each time. Smiling, Aphrodi watched for a bit longer, then realized that this was a prime photo opportunity. Carefully reaching over, he held his breath and then snapped a photo.

_Click._

Fubuki’s bleary eyes opened at the sound, confused as to why it was so close to him. Aphrodi had nearly dropped his phone at how loud the shutter sound had come out, and hid it under the pillow to absolve himself of any blame.

“Morning,” he greeted Fubuki with a kiss on the forehead as his lover blinked into existence. Fubuki reached up to grab his head, then pulled him back down for a kiss on the lips before letting go to bury himself back in the blankets. Aphrodi leaned back into his pillow, surprised at how bold Fubuki had become but pleased with this development. Snuggling up closer to the sleepy bear, he reached over and ruffled the fluffy hair that he loved so much.

“Were you taking a photo of me?” Fubuki had finally registered where that sound had come from. Pushing himself upright on the bed, he realized that he was still naked when the cold air stung against his bare skin. 

“Maybe.” Aphrodi looked up at him with innocent eyes. That bastard had definitely taken a photo.

“How are you feeling?” His brows creased with worry as he checked over Aphrodi’s figure that was still shrouded under a thick blanket. As Aphrodi shifted to a better position, the blanket slipped off his shoulder and revealed just how much attention he had paid Aphrodi’s upper half. He was now feeling distinctly embarrassed at his lack of self control from last night. A morning shaft of light hit Aphrodi’s back, showing off the faint scars now decorated with marks all over it.

“Refreshed.” That sly smile again. Fubuki got out of bed before he could be tempted into doing anything else stupid. Picking up the clothes from the floor, he accidentally grabbed the discarded lingerie while mistaking it for some normal underwear. Aphrodi watched with amusement as Fubuki dropped it in surprise, then hastily picked it back up again.

“I can get more of that if you’re interested,” Aphrodi called over from where he was perched on the bed. Rolling onto his side to ease into a more comfortable position, he narrowly dodged the lingerie getting thrown at him from across the room.

“That is not necessary,” came Fubuki’s prim response as he put on his own pajamas. Aphrodi gave a sigh of disappointment as that nice ass was covered up again, hopefully he’d see more of it soon.

“Put some proper pajamas on and then come out of the room.” Fubuki ordered him as he left with a handful of laundry. Hearing sounds coming from the kitchen a few minutes later, Aphrodi finally rolled out of bed and carefully stretched before heading to the bathroom. Everything ached, but that’s why he had timed it with a three day weekend. A hot shower should fix everything up, and if it wasn’t fixed up, then he could just make an apologetic Fubuki do everything for him. Stopping at the doorway, he hurried back and retrieved his phone, placing it back into its normal place so hopefully Fubuki wouldn’t suspect him. 

Fubuki was unceremoniously dumping some reheated fried rice into two bowls when Aphrodi emerged from the shower. He figured that it was getting close enough to lunchtime that this could count as brunch. Unfortunately, the shirt Aphrodi had chosen to wear was extremely baggy. It casually drooped down, exposing his collarbones and the accompanying marks from last night. Blushing slightly, Fubuki finished pulling together some salad and set it down in front of a very vocal customer. 

“For today, let’s just stay inside.” He prompted as Aphrodi began to dig into the food. A mischievous glint showed in those red eyes upon hearing that, but disappeared when faced with a disapproving frown. 

“Aphrodi, I’m not here all week to help you out, so don’t try anything stupid, please.” 

Aphrodi sighed with annoyance. Fubuki was right, he’d probably regret it the moment Fubuki left, but it was so tempting… he stabbed angrily at his salad, deciding to at least be a little willful.

“What if I want to go out shopping?” That glint in his eyes was there again, knowing Fubuki disliked being dragged around stores but put up with it for him. 

“I’m going to say no because your hips _will_ give out on you,” Fubuki sagely replied as he caught a stray tomato that Aphrodi had tried to flick out of his salad. 

“Then you can princess carry me,” long golden eyelashes were batted coyly in his direction.

“I will carry you like a potato sack in the most inelegant manner over my shoulder.” 

Aphrodi pouted in response, but broke out into a smile again when Fubuki came over to gently rub his shoulders. 

“Too bad it’s not a longer weekend.” Leaning forward so Fubuki could better reach his shoulder blades, he relaxed while those strong fingers worked out some stray knots in his back. 

“Actually…” Fubuki stopped kneading his knuckles into Aphrodi’s back, remembering what had been on his mind during the train ride here. Disappointed at the pause in back rubs, Aphrodi half turned himself to glare up at his kneading machine in hopes that it would start back up again.

“How would you feel if I moved to this city?” Fubuki tested the waters, seeing how Aphrodi would possibly react. There was always that slight chance that Aphrodi might not like it…

“WHAT? Would you move in with me?” Aphrodi was ecstatic, immediately forgetting all the pains and aches that plagued his body. Fully turning around in the chair, he grasped Fubuki’s hands with excitement. “What’s all this about? Is your company moving?” 

“I-well, if you don’t mind me moving in with you,” Fubuki shyly replied, only to be interrupted again by Aphrodi.

“Of course I don’t mind!! When is this happening? Why? Actually I don’t care why, when are you moving in?” Aphrodi was chock full of questions, excited from the fact that he’d be able to spend every day with Fubuki from now on. 

“I got a new job offer, and the company is based in this city,” Fubuki explained, heart light from how Aphrodi had reacted to this news. Even though he knew Aphrodi loved him, it was still hard not to be insecure at times. “It’s a step up in salary and position, and I’ve been thinking of changing companies for a while now just to get ahead. Overall it’s just good timing in general.” 

“That’s great news!” Mind whirling with all the new possibilities of having 24/7 Fubuki access, Aphrodi couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do first. “We should celebrate! But also figure out when you’re going to move in and what you own so I can move my stuff around….” Trailing off, he looked around his slightly disorganized apartment, only helped by the fact that there was a sparse amount of furniture to work around. 

“I don’t own very much.” Fubuki had always lived simply, not really feeling a need to get nice furniture as long as what he had wasn’t broken. “I was thinking next month. Since I just got the offer, I’ll take a bit to negotiate with them, but after that things should move fairly quickly. We can’t move everything on our own since it’s so much stuff, so it might be a good time to call our friends. Maybe have a second housewarming party.”

“Sounds great, I love parties,” Aphrodi stood up, felt his hip give out, and grasped Fubuki in a tight hug in hopes that it would look like a congratulations hug instead of an I’m-falling hug. Evidently it didn’t work, because Fubuki scooped him up (princess carry!) and deposited him unceremoniously on the couch.

“You just stay put and watch movies for the rest of the day,” Fubuki called over to Aphrodi as he went back to clean up the plates left on the table.

“I’d rather watch you all day! Come back!” came Aphrodi’s plaintive cry from over the back of the couch. Fubuki couldn’t stop smiling as he finished loading up the dishes before going back to cuddle with his needy lover. Letting Aphrodi settle in comfortably next to him, he slipped a hand under the pajama shirt and slowly rubbed the faint scars on those thin shoulders, happy to know that soon he would be able to see his guardian angel every day.


	9. epilogue

“Fubuki! Kazemaru! Welcome!” Aphrodi called out to the two as they stepped into the apartment, already carrying some bags. Kidou got up from where he had been moving some stray articles of clothing off the ground to better greet his old friends. 

“How was the drive up?” Kidou asked while taking some bags off of their hands. It had been a long time since all four of them had been in the same room together, and already conversation was starting up between Aphrodi and Kazemaru, proving that moving was secondary to socializing. 

“Pretty good, my car is here now, and Kazemaru drove his up too since I had more stuff than I thought,” Fubuki sheepishly replied. Kazemaru was going to drive up either way, but evidently years of living in the same place still caused him to accumulate quite a few belongings and he had had to borrow some car space. It had felt like a giant spring cleaning, complete with agonizing over whether or not to discard some older comforters and clothes. The latter he knew Aphrodi would be appreciative of. Any opportunity to buy new clothes was like a holiday to that man.

“That’s great, glad it was pretty smooth for you. Three hours of driving is still a lot, though, so relax a bit before you start moving everything in. We still have some time and some of us are late, anyways.” Right on cue, Kidou’s phone buzzed and he picked up while giving Fubuki an apologetic look at having to cut the conversation short. 

“Gouenji? Yeah I’ll go down to open the gate for you—” walking off from Fubuki, he grabbed Aphrodi’s key that was hanging by the door and headed off towards the elevator. Fubuki stretched, then began to get ready to go back outside when his own phone also rang. 

“Ah, Hiroto, good timing. I just got here, too.” Fubuki answered without even waiting to hear the other man's voice. Hiroto had said he would be just a little late due to everyone he was bringing along, anyways. Upon hearing that Fubuki was moving into the city and living with Aphrodi, Hiroto had been ecstatic and offered to come help. He also offered to bring along plenty of “minions” to lend a hand. 

“Great! I brought the whole crew with me.” Hiroto’s voice came through the speaker, along with faint shouting in the background that sounded like Nagumo’s voice yelling _It’s like a clown car in here! Help!_

“I’ll come down and open the gate for you,” Fubuki barely finished hanging up the call before a pair of slim arms crossed around his body from behind. Turning slightly to face the culprit, Aphrodi hung onto him and smiled, waiting for his usual greeting.

“Aphrodi…” Fubuki glanced behind the waiting figure to see Kazemaru stare at him, then suddenly move off to busy himself with unloading bags into the fridge. Giving off an internal sigh of relief, he reached around and kissed Aphrodi on the lips. 

“I’m home.” His hands moved up and played with the loose ponytail laying on the side. It was longer now. Soon, he’d get Aphrodi to cut off the tips, and maybe grow it back out to its old length. Tugging on the taller boy’s shirt collar, he got Aphrodi to bend down with the reward of another kiss as he eyed the crown of his hair. Golden now, like a halo.

Oblivious to the scrutiny that he was under, Aphrodi stuck himself to Fubuki like an enthusiastic sucker fish. 

“Are we going out to greet Hiroto?” He asked, grasping Fubuki’s hand and pulling him along towards the doorway. “I heard Suzuno and Nagumo came, I haven’t seen them in forever. They were complaining at me on Twitter.”

“At you?” Fubuki replied with interest when his phone buzzed again. Letting Aphrodi lead the way, he glanced back down at his phone to see what the message was this time. Kidou had texted saying that he had picked up Hiroto’s crew and was heading up with everyone in tow. What caught his eye though, was the random inspirational message of the day. He knew that sometimes they would repeat, but to repeat on this day? After all that he had been through to get together with Aphrodi? 

“Fubuki? Why’d you stop?” He looked up and met the curious red eyes that had always followed his every movement. 

“Ah nothing, just a memory. Kidou let me know he got everyone downstairs so let’s just go to my car to pick up some of my stuff.” Not letting go of that hand, they headed down the hallway together while the message echoed in his mind.

[The human body is simultaneously extremely resilient and extremely fragile. - Unknown]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's that! Thanks for riding the pain train as my friend calls it, although its all good in the end. A lot of things Aphrodi dealt with in this fic is the norm for people with chronic muscle/joint pain. The little things we think about that others won't even worry over. Carefully planning routes, worrying over what doors buildings might have, if parking is too far.... The most important quote I've heard is "health is a crown that only the ill can see". It's true, as until something breaks down on you, you never realize how good you had it before. So take the time today, to think about how nice it is if your wrists work, your ankles support you, your shoulders are strong, etc. And if they don't, well, we can only do what we can do slowly get better, right?  
> \---  
> Find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/kuroekoo) where you will not see anything but random afufubu sketches. Otherwise, see you in my next fic! (oh maybe its not afufubu this time? hm)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is fully written, just slowly being beta'd. Please check back when you have the chance m(u_u)m  
> I post updates on my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/kuroekoo) !


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